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
- Foreign Companies in China Are Less Optimistic About Investing There — Business-chamber survey finds Covid-19 restrictions, opaque rules and persistent U.S.-China tensions damp sentiment.
- Ukraine Conflict Triggers China’s Food Insecurities — Food self-sufficiency is a longstanding concern for Chinese policy makers. Recent events are likely to speed efforts to boost crop yields.
- Russia Can’t Fly Without the West—But May Eventually Propel China — Sanctions will devastate Russian aviation by denying it access to Boeing and Airbus parts. They will also give fresh impetus to efforts with China to develop alternatives to Western technology.
- Unvaccinated Elderly Send Hong Kong’s Covid-19 Death Rate to World’s Highest — City was caught unprepared for a massive increase in cases as elderly vaccination rate remained low after monthslong stretches of zero infections.
The Financial Times
- Russia’s war on Ukraine boosts China’s financial ambitions — Crude touches highest level since 2008 and investors dump shares after threat of energy sanctions.
- Adidas ousts China chief as sales suffer after consumer boycott over Xinjiang — Sportswear brand loses market share to local rivals after nationalist backlash.
- China’s chained woman exposes horror of Beijing’s one-child policy — Xiao Huamei was trafficked and locked up by her husband but authorities initially justified her treatment.
- How the Ukraine war could boost China’s global finance ambitions — Sanctions on Russia highlight Beijing’s efforts to internationalise the renminbi.
- Ukraine war serves as wake-up call for Taiwan over China threat — Russian invasion increases fears that Beijing will try to take the island by force.
The New York Times
- Companies Stay In China Despite Political Risks and Travel Limits — Worries about pandemic restrictions and trade relations are growing, but most American companies say that they have no plans to relocate operations to other countries, a new survey shows.
- Opinion: Why China Can’t Bail Out Putin’s Economy — No, the Chinese can’t protect Russia from sanctions. By Paul Krugman
Caixin
- Sanctions on Russia Sound Alarm for Chinese Banks — Lenders need to step up risk assessment to avoid secondary sanctions, analysts say.
- Caixin Explains: Why China’s Creating a Financial Security Fund — The move is the latest attempt to ensure stability and prevent risks from indebted institutions deemed ‘too big to fail’ from overflowing into the rest of the financial system.
- Luckin Escapes Liquidation After Striking Debt Restructuring Deal — The erstwhile Starbucks China challenger says a Cayman Islands court had dismissed a petition to wind up the company.
- China Meheco Confirms Pfizer Talks on Selling Paxlovid in China — State-owned drugmaker’s shares surge by 10% limit on four straight days in Shanghai, though its role may be limited to distribution logistics.
South China Morning Post
- Ukraine invasion: Xi warns Scholz and Macron against crippling Russian sanctions — Chinese President Xi Jinping cautioned the French and German leaders that sanctions on Russia could “drag down” the global economy, as Europe stepped up a lobbying campaign for China to mediate on Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
- Semiconductor imports to China shrink for first time in two years, but value jumps nearly 20 per cent — China’s import volume of integrated circuits (ICs) in the first two months of 2022 fell 4.6 per cent compared with the same period last year, marking the first year-on-year drop since the beginning of 2020, according to official customs data.
- China’s state firms to pay US$260 billion in profits to help fund Beijing’s spending spree — China’s central bank will be among state financial institutions paying some of their profits, including arrears, to the government this year to fund an increase in fiscal spending, the finance ministry said on Tuesday.
Nikkei Asia
- U.S. companies in China cite political pressure for gloomy outlook — Operators wary of boosting investment in uncertain business environment.
- Chinese trade with Russia jumps 38% in January-February — Beijing seen extending economic hand to Moscow before Ukraine invasion.
- U.N. rights boss to visit China, including Xinjiang, in May — Bachelet says Beijing has agreed to the trip, to be first such in 17 years.
Bloomberg
- Big Take: Putin’s Invasion May Prompt Xi to Think Twice on Taiwan — Before Russia invaded Ukraine, U.S. officials warned China would seek insights for a potential attack on Taiwan. Nearly two weeks in, Vladimir Putin’s war looks more like a deterrent to Xi Jinping than a road map.
- LME Halts Nickel Trading After Unprecedented 250% Spike — The London Metal Exchange suspended trading in its nickel market after an unprecedented price spike left brokers struggling to pay margin calls against unprofitable short positions, in a massive squeeze that has embroiled the largest nickel producer as well as a major Chinese bank.
- China Considers Buying Stakes in Russian Energy, Commodity Firms — China is considering buying or increasing stakes in Russian energy and commodities companies, such as gas giant Gazprom PJSC and aluminum producer United Co. Rusal International PJSC, according to people familiar with the matter.
Reuters
- China’s c.bank to pay profits to fund fiscal spending – finance ministry — The People’s Bank of China and other state-owned institutions and monopolies are required under Chinese law to pay part of their profits to the government, although this has been suspended for two years due to COVID-19, the finance ministry said in a statement on its website.
- GM gears up to launch new premium import business in China — General Motors Co plans to create a new, independently owned premium brand in China that will market what the automaker’s China chief Julian Blissett recently described as “halo cars” brought in from the United States.
- China says Hong Kong must stick to “dynamic zero” COVID strategy — Hong Kong reported more than 43,100 new cases on Tuesday after the launch of an online platform for people to record infections in a surge that has seen the city suffering the most deaths globally per million people in the week to March 6.
Other Publications
- Politico: White House split delays plans for investment controls on China — National security officials want an executive order limiting American banks’ ability to invest in Chinese technology firms, but the Treasury and Commerce Departments are pushing back.
- Quartz: Are high rare earth prices good for China? — China’s rare earth prices just keep climbing, driving fears of a possible boom-and-bust cycle that experts say would harm global efforts to rebuild rare earth supply chains and reduce reliance on China.
- Brookings Institution: China and synthetic drugs: Geopolitics trumps counternarcotics cooperation — As U.S.-China bilateral relations have grown more tense, Beijing’s willingness to cooperate with Washington on counternarcotics has shrunk.
- NBC News: Amazon suppliers linked to forced labor in China, watchdog group says — The company’s supplier list includes firms accused of using Uyghur laborers.
