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
- Tencent Sinks After China Denounces Online Gaming — Article in state media is later toned down; Tencent pledges new limits on young gamers.
- China Takes Aim at Auto Chip Dealers With Global Supplies Low — Top market regulator probes those it suspects are driving up prices.
- Beijing Shuns Ericsson, Nokia as the West Curbs Huawei — Chinese wireless carrier boosts equipment sales to Huawei and reduces its business with Sweden’s Ericsson.
- Tesla Rival Li Auto Launches $2 Billion Hong Kong Share Sale — Nasdaq-listed maker of electric vehicles is pushing ahead with stock sale despite recent selloff in offshore-listed Chinese stocks.
The Financial Times
- China’s Tencent imposes controls to tackle gaming addiction among children — Online games branded ‘spiritual opium’ in Beijing’s latest assault on tech and its social impact.
- Beijing shuts down transport links as Delta variant spreads to cities — Vaccinated citizens infected in latest outbreak, but expert insists Chinese-made jabs are effective.
- China green energy ETFs deliver best performance in first half — Surge in returns follows commitments made by Xi Jinping to achieve net zero emissions by 2060.
- Why it might be good for China if foreign investors are wary — Regulators should be more worried by too much buying of its stocks and bonds than by too little.
- China’s digital renminbi will go for gold at Beijing Games — Plus, Square’s $29bn bet on ‘buy now pay later’, Monzo’s regulatory woes and the hedge fund driving up fintech valuations.
- Chinese steel prices fall on scepticism over emission policies — Analysts trim expectations for how quickly the country will cut back on production of the alloy.
The New York Times
- Britain Rethinks Letting China Enter Its Nuclear Power Industry — Financing and security issues are clouding new power station projects.
- With #MeToo Case, China Takes a Swipe at Celebrity Obsession — The detention of Kris Wu, a popular Canadian singer, has been hailed as a rare victory for the movement. But Beijing, wary of social activism, has cast it as a warning to celebrities.
- Chinese video game shares plunge after state media calls its products ‘spiritual opium.’ — The blast from the state-affiliated media outlet, the Economic Information Daily, came after months of increased pressure from Beijing aimed at the broader Chinese internet industry.
- Wuhan, where the virus emerged, will test all residents after its first outbreak in over a year. — City officials said they had detected three symptomatic local cases in the previous 24 hours, as well as five asymptomatic ones.
- A Fire in Minnesota. An Arrest in Mexico. Cameras Everywhere. — One night in the Twin Cities, shortly after the killing of George Floyd, someone set a fire in a Goodwill. That led to an international search for the culprits — and it exposed a growing system of global surveillance.
Caixin
- Credit of Shengjing Bank and Seven Others Downgraded — Close ties to debt-ridden Evergrande raise risks for Shengjing Bank as Lianhe Credit Rating cites increases in nonperforming loans.
- State Media Commentary That Sunk Gaming Shares Removed, Then Restored With Less Gusto — The commentary, which was taken down and then restored with gentler language, said gaming addiction was harming children’s academic and personal development.
- Chinese Tutoring Firms Cancel Earnings Releases Amid Regulatory Crackdown — New Oriental and TAL Education scrap quarterly disclosures and calls with investors.
- No Retail Company Climbed the Fortune Global 500 Faster Than Xiaomi This Year — Xiaomi has made it onto the Fortune Global 500 for three years in a row, with the 2021 list showing that the Chinese smartphone giant achieved the biggest jump in the ranking for a company in the internet and retail category.
South China Morning Post
- Pressure grows between African mineworkers and their Chinese bosses — A global rush for cobalt – an essential component in the lithium-ion batteries which power smartphones, laptops and electric cars – has seen a growing number of Chinese companies enter the southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
- China’s top propaganda agencies want to limit the role of algorithms in distributing online content — China’s top state propaganda organs, which decide what people can read and watch in the country, have jointly urged better “culture and art reviews” in China partly by limiting the role of algorithms in content distribution.
- Why China cracked down on education and upended a US$70 billion tutoring industry, with millions of jobs and students affected — President Xi Jinping started criticising China’s after-school tutoring sector years ago, saying it ‘violated the laws of education’ and imposed a heavy burden on families.
Bloomberg
- Jack Ma’s Ant Sees Profit Slide 37% After Regulatory Setback — Ant Group Co.’s profit fell to $2.1 billion in the March quarter after Chinese regulators thwarted its record initial public offering and told it to overhaul its sprawling operation.
- Huarong Plans to Sell Stake in Ant’s Consumer Finance Unit — China Huarong Asset Management Co. is planning to sell its stake in Ant Group Co.’s consumer finance unit, part of the bad-debt manager’s accelerating push to exit non-core businesses.
- Chinese Hackers Compromised Telecom Companies, Researchers Say — Chinese state-backed hacking groups compromised at least five global telecommunications companies and stole phone records and location data, according to cybersecurity researchers.
- Duterte Retained U.S. Military Deal as ‘Concession’ for Vaccines — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said U.S. vaccine donations convinced him to keep a military deal between the two long-time allies that forms a key part of President Joe Biden’s efforts to counter Chinese influence in the region.
Reuters
- Baffled investors fear nothing’s off limits in China regulatory crackdown — Bewildered investors in China’s tech sector scrambled once again from regulators on Tuesday, fearing that a state media story that likened internet gaming to opium signals a new front in the barrage of scrutiny that is being directed toward big business.
- China regulator targets auto chip distributors with price-gouging probe — China’s regulatory agency is launching an investigation into chip distributors in the auto industry, it said on Tuesday, citing suspicions of price gouging.
- China’s Shanshan to invest $1.2 billion to boost battery materials output — Chinese battery materials producer Ningbo Shanshan said on Monday it would invest 8 billion yuan ($1.24 billion) in new facilities in Southwest China to boost production, with an eye on exporting more products to Europe.
Other Publications
- The Washington Post: Germany says wife of man believed to be double agent also helped spy for China — Prosecutors said the woman, identified only as Klara K., is the wife of Klaus L., a retired German political scientist. He was arrested last month on suspicion of spying for China for almost a decade, using the political contacts he built up at a think tank.
- Nikkei Asia: China’s cram schools scramble out of tutoring as crackdown looms — Foreign languages, study abroad and vocational training among new focus areas.
- Foreign Policy: Xi Jinping Is Using Party Outreach to Build an Anti-U.S. Bloc — An overlooked summit shows the scale of the Chinese Communist Party’s ambitions.
- Brookings: The long game: China’s grand strategy to displace American order — An excerpt from “The Long Game: China’s Grand Strategy to Displace American Order” by former Brookings Fellow Rush Doshi.
