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
- China’s Panda Diplomacy Tested as Fight Erupts Over Fu Bao — Fans have accused China of mistreating the 4-year-old panda after it left South Korea for a state-run sanctuary.
- China Securities Regulator Fines Evergrande and Founder $586 Million — A Chinese regulator has followed through on a decision to fine China Evergrande Group and the company’s founder for alleged financial misconduct.
- U.S., Chinese Defense Chiefs Confirm Plan to Reopen Hotlines in First Face-to-Face Meeting — Lloyd Austin and China’s new defense minister reaffirmed the plan as part of an effort by both sides to prevent frictions in Asia from shattering a fragile rapprochement.
- Chinese State Media Hint at Possible PBOC Bond Selling — The People’s Bank of China will sell Treasury bonds when necessary, the Financial News has reported, stoking fresh discussion about whether the central bank should trade Treasury bonds on the secondary market as a way to manage liquidity.
- China’s Strategy to Use Factories to Revive Growth Begins to Show Cracks — China’s factories retrenched unexpectedly in May, snapping a two-month run of growth and raising fresh questions over the nation’s export-led push to revive its economy.
- NIO Shares Jump on Potential Record Sales in May — NIO’s shares rose sharply in Hong Kong on expectations the Chinese electric-vehicle maker’s deliveries would likely hit a record high in May.
The Financial Times
- Saudi fund invests in China effort to create rival to OpenAI — Aramco’s Prosperity7 takes part in investment round for start-up Zhipu AI.
- Chinese factory activity falls in hit to economic momentum — Xi Jinping has prioritised manufacturing growth amid property slowdown and weak domestic consumption.
- US seeks to choke off supplies via China for Russia’s war machine — Ukraine’s allies and western businesses will be told to stop flow of critical components.
- Opinion: There is currency stress on the horizon — But this may not be obvious to investors who cut their teeth in the past decade. By Gillian Tett.
The New York Times
- U.S., Chinese Defense Chiefs Hold First in-Person Talks Since 2022 — Lloyd J. Austin III is meeting his Chinese counterpart as both countries try to show they can manage their disputes over Taiwan and the South China Sea.
Caixin
- China’s Lagging Vaccination Program Gets a Window of Opportunity — China’s vaccination program has stagnated for years, but the falling birthrate may make it easier to offer greater protection to the declining population of children.
- China Merchants to Consolidate Cargo Operations Amid Shipping Boom — State-owned conglomerate shakes up subsidiaries to cash in on rising freight rates.
- Suning to Get $66 Million Lifeline From Citic — The struggling retailer plans to use the proceeds from the loan to develop its retail cloud business.
- Tencent Joins the Chatbot Race with Launch of ‘Yuanbao’ — Yuanbao allows users to perform tasks such as AI searches, document summarization and the creation of personalized AI entities.
- Nine Out of Ten Cars Sold in China Will Be NEVs by 2035, Report Says — Global sales expected to pass 70 million by 2035, although concerns raised over slowing momentum.
South China Morning Post
- Chinese scientists bring ‘shark skin’ tech to the next-generation jet engine race that US Air Force plans to quit — Breakthrough structure developed by Chinese scientists could threaten America’s dominance of engine technology.
- How did Wanda founder Wang Jianlin escape the wave that swept away embattled Evergrande property tycoon Hui Ka Yan? — Wanda Group founder Wang Jianlin turned to a ‘light-asset’ model in 2017, helping him avoid the same fate as Hui Ka Yan, the embattled founder of indebted real estate developer Evergrande Group.
- EU members split sharply over measures to de-risk China economic ties — France leads those states eager to protect their industries from any unfair competition by Beijing while Germany and other free-traders say the market can handle it.
- Mainland China suspends tariff arrangements on 134 items under Taiwan trade deal — Mainland China announced on Friday a suspension of some preferential tariff arrangements under its Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement with Taiwan.
- China’s easing of solar, wind installation curbs to boost renewable energy, aid sector struggling with oversupply — China has eased curbs on solar and wind installations to cut use of fossil fuel, a positive sign for the country’s renewable energy sector, which has been struggling with oversupply.
Nikkei Asia
- Beijing asks Tencent to lower WeChat’s mobile payment market share — The directive is aimed more at the market share for in-person payments made by scanning QR codes than for online shopping, according to the sources.
- China announces Evergrande fine amid speculation over auditor PwC’s fate — Regulatory body issues statement two months after developer disclosed penalty.
- Opinion: Growing China-Russia alignment signifies Biden policy failure — The strategy of driving a wedge between China and Russia helped the West win the Cold War, not militarily, but geopolitically. By Brahma Chellaney.
Bloomberg
- China Home Sales Slump Eases After New Government Support — The downturn in China’s residential real estate market weakened in May, suggesting that the government’s recent efforts to revive the market are beginning to take hold.
- China Signals It May Skip Ukraine Conference in Switzerland — China signaled it may skip a conference on the war in Ukraine next month in Switzerland, raising more questions over how effective the event will be.
- US Cyber Chief Sees ‘Very Aggressive’ Chinese Hacking Strategy — A top US spy chief said China is increasingly using its companies to find vulnerabilities in their own computer networks and then tapping that knowledge to target foreign nations and industries.
- OpenAI Shuts Down Influence Networks Using Its Tools in Russia, China — The startup issued a report on bad actors making use of AI.
- Opinion: To Beat China, US Should Stop Acting Like China — Sacrificing economic efficiency in a quest for absolute security is a losing strategy, whether for Washington or Beijing. By Minxin Pei.
Reuters
- China takes nascent steps towards sourcing sustainable farm products — Some Chinese companies have been “aggressively” asking for deforestation-free soybeans and carbon-neutral vegetable oil since last year, a manager with a global trading firm said.
- Military drill tempo picks up in Asia, but China still lags U.S. and allies, report says — Noting that the U.S. military may eventually lose its edge over China in the region, the study says China is challenged by a lack of combat experience and that its exercises “remain underdeveloped and over scripted for a regional contingency”.
- US Treasury No. 2 warns China over support for Russia — It had to be made clear that “Chinese firms can either do business in our economies or they can equip Russia’s war machinery with dual-use goods. They can’t continue to do both,” he said on a visit to Berlin.
The Economist
- Has China reached peak emissions? — It hopes to de-link its carbon emissions from economic growth.
- Some Taiwanese worry that their lawmakers may sell them out to China — They are protesting against the legislature awarding itself greater powers.
- The evolution of forced labour in Xinjiang — China has wound down its re-education camps, but is still using work to remould the thinking of Uyghurs.
- Want to stop a third world war? Pick up the phone — America’s and China’s defence ministers will meet in Singapore. They need to talk more.
Other Publications
- CFR: Does NATO Have a Role in Asia? — The transatlantic alliance has begun to connect its traditional security interests in Europe with the geopolitical dynamics in the Indo-Pacific region, including tensions between China and Taiwan.
- POLITICO: Washington, We Need to Talk About You and Your Pandas — The capital is giddy about getting a new pair of zoo animals. It’s a love affair that reveals a bunch about the city.
- The Guardian: He found the American Dream on China’s TikTok. The reality was more complicated — Videos on Douyin give people step-by-step instructions on how to get to the US – and then leave them stranded upon arrival.
