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, Russia Hold Military Drills Amid Security Concerns in Afghanistan, Central Asia — Exercises by two U.S. strategic adversaries are focused on counterterrorism and maintaining stability.
- Hong Kong Exchange Sees Jump in Listing Inquiries — The bourse’s operator posted record revenue and net profit for the first six months of the year.
- Evergrande’s Enormous Bill Finally Comes Due — China’s most indebted property company is selling off strategic assets, but that probably isn’t enough to save it.
- Wan Long, CEO of World’s Largest Pork Producer, Steps Down — Former head of WH Group will remain chairman and an executive director.
The Financial Times
- China unveils five-year plan to strengthen control of economy — Communist party seeks to extend oversight of important sectors in latest step of regulatory assault.
- Investors need to evaluate the impact of a growing nationalism — Moves to protect technology and secure food and raw material supplies hit markets.
- World’s largest battery maker CATL battles to stay on top — Chinese group’s valuation hits $186bn in just 10 years on soaring demand for electric vehicles.
- China insurance: fresh tall poppies for Beijing to tie back — Trouble in the sector could pose a systemic risk, with some participants too big to fail.
The New York Times
- Mirror, a Hong Kong Boy Band, Cheers the Gloomy Chinese City — The popularity of the group, called Mirror, has offered the city a rare burst of unity and pleasure after years of political upheaval.
- Alibaba Rape Allegation Reveals China Tech’s Seamy Side — Sexually suggestive office games, boozy dinners and a culture of ignoring problems have long plagued the industry. Changing it will still be hard.
Caixin
- China Expands Scrutiny of Online Insurance Sector — CBIRC orders insurers to curb improper marketing and pricing practices and step up protection of user privacy in an extension of the government crackdown on internet commerce.
- Regulatory Headwinds Take Luster Off Beauty Industry Stocks — Authorities are banning loans for cosmetic procedures and tightening rules for certain procedures, stirring speculation over a wider crackdown.
- New Regulation Plan Pledges ‘Consistency,’ Respect for Rule of Law Amid Roiling Markets — Policy document emphasizes the use of legislation rather than administrative measures, and is the first to use the term ‘antitrust.’
South China Morning Post
- China coronavirus infection closes shipping terminal at massive Ningbo-Zhoushan Port as container rates soar — The world’s largest shipping port by cargo tonnage has shut down one of its key terminals following a confirmed case of Covid-19, putting further strain on the global shipping industry and disrupting supply chains.
- Beijing hints that its Big Tech antitrust scrutiny could be permanent with new five-year blueprint — China has made antitrust enforcement a priority in its recently published five-year plan for the development of rule of law in the country, suggesting that Beijing’s regulatory attention to the anticompetitive behaviour of Big Tech could be the new normal.
- Weibo public relations executive arrested on bribery charges as China takes aim at online opinion manipulation — The former marketing and public relations director for social media giant Weibo, known as China’s Twitter, was recently arrested on bribery charges, the latest in a string of corruption cases to hit China‘s technology companies in recent years.
Bloomberg
- Hong Kong Sees 89,000 Leave in Past Year After Security Law — Hong Kong’s population shrank substantially over the past year as people left the city in the wake of the implementation of the National Security Law that curtailed protest and dissent.
- China Smart-Car Makers Required to Store Key Data Locally — China will require intelligent-vehicle makers to store locally generated data within the country, the latest step in a broader regulatory crackdown on business.
- China Exchanges Ban Cosmetic Surgery Loans in Debt Securities — Chinese regulators have barred cosmetic surgery loans from structured debt products, a warning shot for the country’s big — and controversial — plastic surgery industry.
- China Huarong’s Journey From Safe Bet to Bad News: A Timeline — China Huarong Asset Management Co.’s picture remains opaque more than four months after a delay to 2020 results kicked off a plunge in the company’s bonds and speculation about its future.
Reuters
- China’s Ningbo airport has suspended flights to and from Beijing due to ‘public health incident’ — China’s Ningbo airport has suspended inbound and outbound flights to the capital Beijing from August 11 due to a “public health incident”, state television reported on Thursday.
- Didi denies management changes amid cybersecurity probe — China’s ride-hailing giant Didi Global Inc said on Thursday that rumours about a possible management change are not true.
- China Telecom’s U.S. exile is a boon for investors — Listing shares on the New York Stock Exchange may carry prestige, but state-owned Chinese companies may offer better value in a new home.
- Exclusive – China’s tech crackdown thwarts Pony.ai’s U.S. listing plans -sources — Autonomous driving startup Pony.ai has put on hold plans to go public in New York through a merger with a blank-check firm at a $12 billion valuation, after it failed to gain assurances from Beijing that it would not become a target of a crackdown against Chinese technology companies, people familiar with the matter said.
Other Publications
- The Economist: Xi Jinping’s assault on the tech industry will change China’s trajectory — It is likely to prove self-defeating.
- The Economist: How the delisting of Chinese firms on American exchanges might play out — $1.5trn of market capitalisation is at stake
- Nikkei Asia: Chinese sportswear brands count profits from Xinjiang controversy — As sales boom for Li Ning and Anta fades, Olympics revives Adidas and Nike
- Foreign Policy: Why China Keeps Spinning COVID-19 Conspiracies — A fake expert is the latest part of a state media push to blame the United States for the pandemic—at great diplomatic cost.
- Quartz: Managing China’s thousands of dams is trickier in the era of climate change — Flooding in recent years due to unusually heavy downpours has drawn more attention to the challenges of managing dams in an era of climate change, when extreme rainfall poses new risks for surrounding communities.
