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
- On RedNote, Chinese Cooks Cheer On Americans Experimenting With New Cuisine — ‘Bury me with steamed eggs’: homestyle dish goes viral among Tiktokers flocking to Chinese app.
- DeepSeek’s Breakthrough Pressures Trump to Act on AI — Companies, lawmakers want clarity on export controls and standards for testing models.
- How DeepSeek’s AI Stacks Up Against OpenAI’s Model — Chinese startup’s AI model, R1, goes head-to-head with OpenAI’s capabilities. But they are also very different.
- DeepSeek’s Rise Exposes Nvidia’s Weakness — A new Chinese AI model threatens to diminish the need for Nvidia’s most-expensive chips, but some say the concerns are overblown.
- DeepSeek’s Deeper Impact Is Positive for Some Hard-Hit Stocks — TSMC and other companies in the chip ecosystem could see even more business if AI becomes cheaper.
- Chinese and Iranian Hackers Are Using U.S. AI Products to Bolster Cyberattacks — Researchers outline malicious uses of AI after China-built AI platform DeepSeek upends international assumptions about Beijing’s capabilities.
- OpenAI Is Probing Whether DeepSeek Used Its Models to Train New Chatbot — Silicon Valley-based company says Chinese entities have tried to exfiltrate data from its tools.
- Alibaba Unveils Upgraded AI Model, Claims It Surpasses Rival DeepSeek-V3 — The announcement follows a market frenzy triggered by Chinese AI startup DeepSeek.
- Panama Launches Charm Offensive in First Bilateral Meeting With Trump Administration — Central American nation offers closer cooperation on migration and security while seeking to ease U.S. fears about Chinese influence over the Panama Canal.
- Pork Giant Smithfield Returns to U.S. Stock Market — Shares down in first day of trading; CEO says company is at its peak despite threats of tariffs and concerns over Chinese ownership.
The Financial Times
- Beijing-backed lending boosts China’s dominance in clean energy minerals — Entities loaned billions to create mining and processing supply chain, report shows.
- OpenAI says it has evidence China’s DeepSeek used its model to train competitor — White House AI tsar David Sacks raises possibility of alleged intellectual property theft.
The New York Times
- Do DeepSeek’s A.I. Advances Mean U.S. Tech Controls Have Failed? — DeepSeek’s A.I. models show that China is making rapid gains in the field, despite American efforts to hinder it.
- DeepSeek’s A.I. Chatbot Awkwardly Navigates China’s Censors — Asked about sensitive topics, the bot would begin to answer, then stop and delete its own work. It refused to answer questions like: “Who is Xi Jinping?”
- Trudeau Government Left Canada Vulnerable to Foreign Interference — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should have acted quicker to protect Canadian elections from outside meddling, a government commission said, shaking trust in democratic institutions.
- Leaving the W.H.O. Could Hurt Americans on a Range of Health Matters — President Trump’s decision to pull out of the international health agency could deprive the United States of crucial scientific data and lessen the country’s influence in setting a global health agenda.
- A Day in Life of a Chinese Food Delivery Worker — In China’s economic downturn, food-delivery workers toiling under unforgiving rules and dwindling pay say they don’t see a future.
Caixin
- Expanded Russian Customs Checks Disrupt China-Europe Rail Logistics — Russia’s dual-use checks on Chinese containers causing delays and raising costs for logistics firms.
South China Morning Post
- China’s DeepSeek shocked the tech world. Can its home province do it again? — Zhejiang, home to AI upstart DeepSeek and other firms, endeavours to be a world-leading incubator for the bleeding edge of tech.
- Taiwan considers support for semiconductor industry after Trump’s tariff threat — Premier Cho Jung-tai said the island’s government would look for ways to maintain the island’s ‘leading position.’
Nikkei Asia
- In mineral sands, Australian rare earth ambitions mingle with China’s interests — As Western supply chains mature slowly, Chinese giants buy up mineral sands globally.
- Mitsubishi Electric to bolster China’s factory robot supply chain — Japanese manufacturer to increase local procurement amid trade risks.
- Chinese harassment claim shows growing frustration with Pakistan — Though later withdrawn, rare action adds to uncertainties about doing business in the country.
Bloomberg
- Huawei’s Google-Free Phones Are Making Real Progress — New HarmonyOS software is of existential importance to China’s tech champion.
- Arm China Picks New CEO to Navigate Chip Geopolitics in Trump Era — The company plans to tap Chen Feng, a former executive at Fujian-based chipmaker Rockchip Electronics Co.
- Opinion: DeepSeek Is Coming for Sam Altman’s Other Company Too — Oklo’s prospects depend on AI’s insatiable need for electricity fueling demand for carbon-free electricity and expensive nuclear projects. By Liam Denning.
- Opinion: Does Volvo’s Chinese Ownership Threaten U.S. National Security? — A bifurcated market is bad news for the auto industry and consumers, and it’s particularly troublesome for Geely. By Chris Bryant.
Reuters
- Exclusive: Deutsche Bank talks on China JV end over disagreement on control, sources say — Calling off the JV talks deals a blow to the German firm’s China ambitions.
- High-Flyer, the AI quant fund behind China’s DeepSeek — While DeepSeek’s success appears to have happened almost overnight, High-Flyer shows how this meteoric rise has been over a decade in the making.
Other Publications
- The Economist: A big, beautiful Trump deal with China? — Washington hawks puzzle over calls for China to help in Ukraine, and hints of a possible TikTok reprieve.
- The Economist: America and China are talking. But much gets lost in translation — How linguistic differences complicate relations between the great powers.
- Los Angeles Times: Chinese films dodging censors have no place to go. Can they crack into Taiwan? — Taiwan is an ideal place for Chinese filmmakers to evade censorship. But the island democracy has its own restrictions.
- CFR: Faced With Rapidly Aging Society, China Releases Long-Term Plans on Dementia and Eldercare Services — Beijing has rolled out policy frameworks aimed at expanding eldercare and dementia services for an aging China but it is unclear how effective they will be.
