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
- Shein’s Rise Was Nearly Overnight. The Backlash Came Just As Fast. — The ultra-low-price, fast-fashion juggernaut, valued at $100 billion, is facing widespread criticism from a generation of eco-conscious shoppers.
- Meta, TikTok Could Face Civil Liability for Addicting Children in California — Social-media platforms are lobbying to stop first-in-the-nation proposal allowing government attorneys to sue them for features alleged to harm minors.
The Financial Times
- Pro-China group attacks US rare earths plant in fake social media posts — Cyber campaign comes as Washington tries to boost self-sufficiency in critical minerals.
- US blacklists Chinese companies for allegedly supporting Russian military — Washington says sanctions send ‘powerful message’ to anyone backing Moscow’s Ukraine invasion.
- China’s Marxism majors prosper amid labour market woes — Xi’s ideology drive is ensuring keen demand from companies and schools for graduates in communist theory.
- Companies braced for chaos as Xinjiang import ban starts in US — Shipments from Chinese region barred under rules in effect from June 21.
- US tech benchmark drops 3% on softening consumer confidence — Crude oil rises as American inflation-rate expectations hit record high of 8%.
- Nike/China: consumer market is yet to fully open — Don’t take the easing of pandemic restrictions as a sign that the country is returning to normality.
The New York Times
- Shanghai Wrestles With Psychological Scars From Lockdown — The lockdown fueled anxiety, fear and depression among the city’s residents. Experts have warned that the mental health impact of the confinement will be long-lasting.
Caixin
- Hong Kong and China Mainland to Launch ETF Connect July 4 — System will enable investors in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Shanghai to buy and sell exchange-traded funds in each other’s markets.
- China’s Property Market Has Bottomed Out, Top Developer Says — Vanke’s chairman says pre-owned home sales are rebounding as a result of cities relaxing restrictions on property purchases.
- Former Apple Camera-Module Supplier Removed From U.S. Trade Blacklist — Ofilm’s share price surged on Wednesday after its subsidiary was dropped from the U.S. Entity List.
South China Morning Post
- China’s easing of zero-Covid restraints set to release stocks into bull-market territory for first time in three years — A change in quarantine rules comes as the CSI 300 Index is within less than 3 per cent of bull-market status, but opinions differ over how heavily Beijing’s zero-Covid policy still weighs on the market.
- China to start building giant telescope to monitor solar winds that can knock out satellites and power grids — Researchers say work will start soon to assemble the three antennas that will make up the Mingantu telescope in Inner Mongolia.
- China relaxes intercity travel restrictions by removing indication of Covid-19 risk on digital passes — The change, which is expected to ease domestic travel, has led to a surge in flight ticket inquiries, local media reported.
Nikkei Asia
- Xi ally Li Qiang keeps Shanghai party chief job, but star fades — COVID lockdown seen hurting his chances of joining Politburo Standing Committee.
- China Broadnet starts 5G service as country’s 4th carrier — Government hopes competition will push incumbents to improve.
- Hong Kong’s identity in crisis after 25 years of Beijing rule — Forced out of the city by China’s crackdowns, the Hong Kong diaspora fight to save their culture from afar.
Bloomberg
- Tianqi Lithium Seeks Up to $1.7 Billion in Hong Kong Listing — Tianqi Lithium Corp., a Chinese supplier of the key material used in batteries, is planning to raise as much as $1.7 billion in what’s set to be Hong Kong’s biggest listing this year.
- Taiwan Firms Step Up US Investments to Mitigate Chip Concerns — A Taiwanese chip company announced a $5 billion investment in the US this week and another is planning a research center in the Midwest. The back-to-back announcements may help allay concerns among American politicians and business leaders that the country is relying too much on Taiwan for production of semiconductors.
- How This Startup Finds ESG Data on Chinese Companies — Scraping the Chinese internet is the best way to evaluate firms’ environmental and social practices, MioTech’s founder says.
Reuters
- U.S. accuses five firms in China of supporting Russia’s military — The Commerce Department, which oversees the blacklist, said the targeted companies had supplied items to Russian “entities of concern” before the Feb. 24 invasion, adding that they “continue to contract to supply Russian entity listed and sanctioned parties.”
- China’s easing COVID curbs spark travel inquiry surge, and caution — Online searches for Chinese airline tickets on domestic and international routes surged on Wednesday, after Beijing said it would slash COVID-19 quarantine requirements and made changes to a state-mandated mobile app used for local travel.
Other Publications
- The Washington Post: Chinese posed as Texans on social media to attack rare earths rivals — Accounts on Twitter and Facebook have been posing as Texans to attack a rare earths processing facility in that state being built by Lynas Rare Earths Ltd., according to the cybersecurity firm Mandiant.
- Quartz: “Top Gun: Maverick” shows Hollywood can survive without China’s film market — The uneasy relationship between Hollywood and China took a major turn in the past year, highlighted now by the success of Top Gun: Maverick, which crossed the $1 billion mark in ticket sales last weekend.
