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
- Explosion at Barbecue Restaurant in China Kills 31 on Eve of Holiday — Chinese leader Xi Jinping ordered stricter safety controls after the gas explosion in Ningxia.
- Can Sanctions Threat Deter China From Invading Taiwan? Yes and No — Measures taken against Moscow over Ukraine would be much trickier to apply to Beijing, according to a new analysis.
- Biden Calls Xi a Dictator, Jeopardizing U.S.-China Thaw — The president’s comment at a fundraiser injects fresh discord into the leaders’ personal relationship.
- Biden’s Trade Challenge: Kicking the China Dependency Habit — Officials want to avoid trade deals whose rules boost China’s role in supply chains.
- America’s Top Fast-Fashion Retailer Tries to Shed Its Chinese Image — Shein says it doesn’t source cotton from Xinjiang as it navigates U.S.-China tensions.
The Financial Times
- Volkswagen plans external audit of controversial plant in Xinjiang — German carmaker responds to accusations it is linked to forced labour.
- US overtakes China as market for South Korean goods — Shifts in supply chains part of changing pattern of global trade.
- China’s dominance of solar poses difficult choices for the west — The unpalatable truth is that green technologies mean we will have to find ways to co-operate with Beijing.
- India poised to buy US spy drones — Agreements signal Washington’s intent to draw New Delhi closer as it seeks to counter China’s influence.
The New York Times
- Explosion at Barbecue Restaurant in China Kills 31 — The deadly blast, in the northwestern city of Yinchuan, was blamed on a gas leak, and it is likely to prompt closer scrutiny of restaurants that feature gas grills.
- U.S. Intelligence Agencies May Never Find Covid’s Origins, Officials Say — The agencies are expected to release declassified material on what they have learned about Covid’s origins. People briefed on the material say there is no smoking gun.
- Biden Calls Xi a ‘Dictator’ Who Was Kept in the Dark About Spy Balloon — At a campaign fund-raiser, the president said China’s leader was “very embarrassed” to not be informed about the surveillance craft that was shot down after crossing American airspace.
- China’s Cloud Computing Firms Raise Concern for U.S. — The Biden administration is exploring whether it can mount a campaign against Chinese tech giants like Alibaba and Huawei.
Caixin
- Former New China Life Insurance Chief Accused of Bribery — Wan Feng kicked out of Communist Party and his illegal gains confiscated as graft busters turn his case over to prosecutors.
- In Depth: Alibaba Has Hurdles to Overcome Before Its Drastic Restructuring Pays Off — the next chapter for the Chinese e-commerce giant won’t be smooth sailing.
- China and U.S. Agree to Increase the Number of Flights Between Them — China and the U.S. agreed to actively explore increasing the number of flights between the world’s two largest economies, encouraging students, scholars and business professionals to visit each other.
- Graft Busters Ramp Up Crackdown on Big State-Owned Firms — China’s top corruption watchdog Wednesday unveiled a long list of ongoing graft investigations targeting senior managers at centrally owned state enterprises.
South China Morning Post
- With China in mind, Biden and Modi to seal deals from space to chips, 5G to critical minerals — Leaders will hold talks on Thursday and announce a raft of agreements, senior US officials say.
- Could China’s hardball tactics drive Seoul further towards Washington? — Latest rift risks deepening South Korea’s relations with the US and Japan, which is having its own disagreements with Beijing.
- Alibaba chief strategist says ‘more important’ to focus on small business as China’s economy slows — It is more important than ever for Alibaba to focus on small businesses and merchants, the group’s chief strategist said on Wednesday, endorsing a strategic business pivot initiated by its founder Jack Ma.
Nikkei Asia
- ASML says decoupling chip supply chain is practically impossible — Top equipment maker sources globally while keeping most production in Netherlands.
- China-linked stocks tumble after rate cut disappoints — From Wall Street to Tokyo, PBOC stimulus falls short of expectations.
- Analysis: After a decade, Xi floats ‘G2’ world with U.S. again — President says Planet Earth is big enough for both U.S. and China.
Bloomberg
- Ford Gets $9.2 Billion for EV Battery Plant in Biden Green Tech Push — It’s one of the biggest loans to a US carmaker in more than a decade — and a watershed moment in Biden’s $400 billion plan to go all in on green technologies.
- Shein Eyes Overseas Expansion to Shift Supply Chain Beyond China — Fast-fashion giant Shein will strengthen its presence in Europe and Mexico, including selling more locally made products, in a bid to diversify its China-centric supply chain.
- New Zealand’s Hipkins Disagrees With Biden That Xi Is a Dictator — New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said he wouldn’t characterize Chinese President Xi Jinping as a dictator, disagreeing with US President Joe Biden.
Reuters
- G7 affirms unity and need for close coordination on China, State Department says — The Group of Seven countries affirmed their unity and stressed the need for close coordination in dealing with China, the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday.
- Germany’s Scholz: I warned China on using force against Taiwan — Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the German parliament on Thursday that he had warned China during talks earlier this week against using force to achieve territorial changes, particularly against Taiwan.
- China’s governing body upholds lifetime bans for match-fixing — China’s snooker authorities have upheld lifetime bans for match-fixing handed out to Liang Wenbo and Li Hang by the sport’s world governing body (WPBSA) and given five other players longer suspensions for domestic matches.
Other Publications
- Foreign Policy: Chinese Firms Are Evading Chip Controls — Here’s how the Biden administration can enforce the ban.
- Politico: Military bases and Biden quips complicate thaw of U.S.-China ties — The administration insists diplomacy is the only way to keep the relationship of the world’s foremost powers on track.
- Marketplace APM: Chinese investment in U.S. startups under scrutiny for espionage — The scale of China’s industrial espionage effort is staggering, according to Michael Brown, a partner at Shield Capital and former director of the Defense Innovation Unit at the Department of Defense.
- Washington Post: Opinion: The U.S. and China are rivals — but can talk like adults — Blinken’s trip to China, the first by a U.S. secretary of state in five years, marked something of a new beginning in the relationship after a sharp deterioration.
- Center for Strategic & International Studies: What’s Next for the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act? — In the first year of enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detained more than $1.3 billion worth of products at the border under the UFLPA.
