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.
The Wall Street Journal
- Soybean Prices Rally as China Ramps Up Buying — China has ramped up its purchases of U.S. soybeans recently, sparking a rebound in prices and making the crop profitable again for U.S. farmers after the coronavirus pandemic had slammed demand.
- As Covid-19 Rages, Alibaba’s Chinese Rivals Steal a March — Alibaba’s rivals JD.com and Pinduoduo are gaining on the reigning Chinese e-commerce king. But matching its profitability won’t be easy.
- EDITORIAL BOARD: Trump’s Immigration Gift to China — His limits on foreign workers will send more U.S. jobs overseas.
- Political Donors Linked to China Won Access to Trump, GOP — After the U.S. in 2016 elected a president little known in Beijing, hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions opened doors in Washington for Chinese nationals with high-level ties.
The Financial Times
- Human rights price Trump will pay for China trade deal may not be palatable — It’s hard to see either Democrats or Republicans standing by as Washington quietens its usually powerful voice to a whisper
- China surpasses western government African university scholarships — Beijing uses educational ‘soft power’ alongside its economic investment programme
The New York Times
- Trapped Abroad, China’s ‘Little Pinks’ Rethink Their Country — Young and patriotic, overseas students often defend their nation against its critics. But when many tried to return home during the pandemic, they became targets themselves.
- China and America Are Heading Toward Divorce — For 40 years the two countries had an unconscious economic coupling.
- Disney Exits Language School Business in China, Citing Coronavirus — Disney English, once envisioned as a 150-location chain, walked a fine line between language education and brand building.
Caixin
- Rural Lenders Plagued by Bad Debt Secure Funding to Form New Bank — Three small financial institutions are merging with fresh capital from two larger banks to help deal with their nonperforming loans
- China Development Bank Bond Is a Tough Sell as Investors Flock to Special Purpose Debt — Deluge of special purpose bond sales by Ministry of Finance is crowding out other issuers
- With Medical Gear as Lifeline, Export Textile Industry Faces Uncertain Future — With international demand for new clothes down amid pandemic, upstream suppliers have shifted to making protective equipment
- From Ford Partner to Dying Electric-Vehicle Maker, Zotye Struggles to Survive — Company could become one of the largest victims to date of consolidation in China’s bloated new energy car sector after sharp rollback of government subsidies
- Luckin Stock Plunges After Second Delisting Notice From Nasdaq — Exchange cites blown deadline for issuing annual report after China’s Starbucks challenger disclosed $310 million financial reporting fraud in April
- JD.com Divests From Travel Agency Tuniu in $65m Fire Sale Five Years After $500m Investment — Major e-commerce platform JD.com will unload its entire 21% stake in Chinese online travel website Tuniu for about 458 million yuan ($65 million), losing a $500 million bet as a recovery looks elusive for a sector decimated by the pandemic.
- Kuaishou to Build Livestreaming E-Commerce Base in Chengdu — TikTok rival Kuaishou on Wednesday said that it will invest 3 billion yuan ($424 million) to build a livestreaming e-commerce base in the western Chinese city of Chengdu, the latest sign that the video-sharing platform is increasing its bet on a sector that has taken off during the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Didi Eyes 1 Million ‘Robotaxis’ in Operation by 2030 — Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing has finally specified the number of autonomous vehicles it aims to operate by 2030, two months after it set a goal for the volume of trips it hopes to log in a three-year plan.
South China Morning Post
- Fosun looks to reap the gains of its early investment in logistics giant Cainiao with a US$1.3 billion stake sale to Alibaba — Fosun International, one of China’s biggest private sector conglomerates, is set to sell its 6.7 per cent stake in logistics firm Cainiao to Alibaba Group Holding and other investors for around US$1.3 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter.
- Hong Kong’s Mid-Levels rents slashed. Is city’s luxury property set for a historic rout? — Is Hong Kong’s luxury residential market set for a historic rout in the months ahead?Last week, a 5,630 sq ft duplex unit on the 50th and 51st floor of Arezzo development at 33 Seymour Road in Mid-Levels was leased for a monthly rent of HK$100,000, according to the city’s Land Registry. The HK$17.80 per square foot price tag is half the average rate on small and medium-sized homes in the city tracked by Midland Realty.
- Can Xi Jinping revive China’s dream of turning its poor west into an economic powerhouse? — Two decades after Beijing announced its first western development plan, China’s vast western region, which accounts for more than 70 per cent of the country’s land mass and close to a third of its population, remains much poorer than eastern coastal provinces.
- Coronavirus: Taiwan to allow transit passengers, some visitors as it starts to ease restrictions — Taiwan will allow international travellers – including from Hong Kong and Macau – to transit through the island as it starts to ease coronavirus restrictions, while entry bans on some students and non-tourism visitors will also be lifted.
- Shadow banking back in vogue in China as assets grow for the first time since 2017 — Informal lending by Chinese banks, so-called shadow banking, is back in vogue after two and half years of regulatory clampdown as Beijing pledges faster credit growth to rescue its coronavirus-hit economy, according to a new report.
- Hong Kong lawmakers shelve proposal to impose vacancy tax on developers, citing lack of time — Hong Kong lawmakers have called off plans to introduce a vacancy tax on property developers hoarding new flats due to a lack of time to vet the proposal, with no assurance from the government to bring the bill back in the next legislative session.
Bloomberg
- Tencent’s $40 Billion Rally, PDD Ascent Shuffle China’s Richest — Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s $40 billion surge this week and the recent ascent of Pinduoduo Inc. have reshaped the landscape of China’s richest people.
- Chinese Banks Expand in World’s Priciest Office Market — Chinese finance companies are taking more office space in Hong Kong, joining Alibaba and other mainland firms expanding in the world’s most expensive market even as foreign players consider scaling back.
- Evergrande Gives Early Results in Face of Possible Downgrade — China Evergrande Group took the rare step of releasing preliminary results as it faces a potential credit downgrade amid growing concerns about the property developer’s mounting debt load.
- Chinese Covid-19 Vaccines Cleared for Final Testing in U.A.E. — A Chinese state-owned vaccine developer secured regulatory approval to test its coronavirus shots in the United Arab Emirates, making it one of the first among a slew of global efforts to get the greenlight for the final stage of human trials.
- China’s Live-Video Crackdown Will Spur Patriotic Content — China’s crackdown on live-streaming content will ensure that the right message is broadcast.
Reuters
- China’s debt relief to support some stressed emerging markets: Fitch — China’s pledge to relieve the debt burden owed to it by some emerging market governments could ease near-term liquidity pressures in nations struggling with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, Fitch Ratings said on Wednesday.
- China’s Goldsea pulls plug on Alto Metals bid amid tougher Australian takeover rules — China’s Goldsea Group said it will let a takeover bid by its unit for Australian gold miner Alto Metals lapse after the country’s foreign investment board sought extra time to consider the deal as Australia tightens rules.
- China to extend exemption on social insurance fees for firms hit by COVID-19 — China’s human resources ministry said on Wednesday it would extend the exemption on social insurance fees for firms hit by the COVID-19 pandemic until the end of this year.
- India levies charge on some steel imports from China, Korea, Vietnam — India has imposed an anti-dumping duty on flat rolled steel products that are plated or coated with alloy of aluminium and zinc originating in, or from China, Vietnam and South Korea, according to a government order issued on Tuesday.
- Column: Does China still need U.S. soybeans after Brazil’s export bonanza? – Braun — U.S. soybean sales to China have finally started to resemble the pre-trade war era, but amid massive Brazilian shipments and the record build in Chinese soybean stocks, one cannot help wondering whether China will end up needing as many soybeans as the United States hopes to export later in the year.
Xinhua
- China’s central bank injects 180 bln yuan into market — China’s central bank on Wednesday pumped cash into the banking system via reverse repos to maintain liquidity.
- Cainiao Network vows to halve cross-border air delivery time — Cainiao Network, the logistics arm of Alibaba Group, has announced that it would ramp up investment to double cross-border air-freight efficiency.
- China’s benchmark power coal price remains flat — China’s benchmark power coal price remained flat during the past week.
- China releases new negative lists for foreign investment — China has unveiled new, shortened negative lists for foreign investment, as part of efforts to further open up the economy and improve its business environment amid the novel coronavirus epidemic.
- Huawei to replicate Kenya digital classroom in five more countries — Chinese technology firm, Huawei, on Wednesday announced that a successful model of teaching digital skills to disadvantaged communities in Kenya will be replicated in five other countries including France and the Philippines in the next two years.
- Suntory plans to open more restaurants on Chinese mainland — Suntory plans to open about 100 more restaurants on the Chinese mainland in the next three years, the Japanese company said.
- Chinese shares close higher Wednesday — Chinese stocks closed higher on Wednesday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.3 percent to end at 2,979.55 points.
Other Publications
- Quartz: Academics fear using Zoom to study China—even in the US — Zoom, the video-conferencing platform whose popularity has been buoyed by coronavirus lockdowns worldwide, made headlines this month for admitting to censoring calls at Beijing’s request. Now professors at US universities are wondering if they should risk using Zoom to teach courses about China.
- Forbes: The Greatest Threat To Global Cosmetics’ China Success: An Interview With D2C Unicorn Perfect Diary — Over the past few years there has been significant shift in market share of the Chinese cosmetics industry, as homegrown Chinese brands have risen in popularity, particularly among China’s young Generation Z consumers.
- Forbes: How Russian And Saudi Oil Ties To China Complicate The Post-Pandemic World — Russia and Saudi Arabia both rely on oil sales to fund a majority of their budgets. In the last five plus years, China has become the biggest customer for both countries. In fact, China is the world’s largest importer of oil, though it could cut imports if it stopped adding to inventory.
- CNBC: iPhone sales in China drop in May after recent rebound — but Apple shows signs of resilience — IPhone sales in China fell in May, showing signs of weakening after Apple saw an initial rebound when the country reopened as the coronavirus outbreak eased. But other areas of the business grew, including spending on the App Store, which could point to some resilience for the U.S. technology giant in one of its biggest markets.
- The Hollywood Reporter: Beijing Buyers Sit on Cannes’ Virtual Sidelines as Chinese Cinemas Remain Shuttered — Chinese dealmakers emerged as a major buying force in the last decade, but with the Middle Kingdom now lagging the world in reopening cinemas amid the COVID-19 crisis, the Beijing industry is in limbo. Says one insider: “There’s a sinking sense of despair.”
- Nikkei Asian Review: Huawei steps up challenge to Apple with China flagship store — Huawei Technologies has opened its largest flagship store along one of China’s most exclusive shopping streets, defying a tightening U.S. crackdown in a move to grab a larger domestic market share at the expense of rivals such as Apple. Queues formed early on Wednesday at the three-floor store in a stylish art deco building in Shanghai, which is a statement of intent from the world’s second-biggest smartphone maker.
- Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance: The Problem with Foreign Issuers — What is the common denominator between a Chinese company listed in the United States and an Emirati company listed in the United Kingdom? Both are foreign issuers currently embroiled in massive governance scandals, the details of which are creating fascinating corporate dramas, spilling all over front pages of financial media. Both companies are presently in the process of being delisted, following a whistleblower campaign initiated by Muddy Watters, an American investment research firm, as it announced its short positions.
