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
- With Two Meals, Janet Yellen’s Outreach in China Yields Mixed Results — Divergent reactions reflect bumpy road for improving U.S.-Beijing relations.
- Indictment of Gal Luft, Called Key Witness by GOP, Clouds Biden Probe — Justice Department unsealed an indictment charging him with acting as an illegal agent of China.
- Milwaukee Tool Is Questioned Over Alleged Use of Chinese Forced Labor — U.S. lawmakers call on the tool maker—which denies the allegations—to turn over information related to internal investigations on its products’ links to prison labor.
- India Says Foxconn, Vedanta Chip Venture Ended Due to ‘Internal Issues’ — Minister says both companies will still pursue chip projects in India.
- Big Automakers Grab $1 Billion Deal for Urgently Needed Battery Metals — Volkswagen and Stellantis join complicated SPAC offering for nickel and copper mines.
- U.S. Government Emails Hacked in Suspected Chinese Espionage Campaign — Hack is seen as part of a suspected cyber-espionage campaign to access data in sensitive computer networks.
- Opinion: Bidenomics: Chinese Capitalism With American Characteristics — Using subsidies and mandates to pick winners and losers is a recipe for economic disaster. By Scott Hodge.
The Financial Times
- Greater China investors join global migration to ETFs — The exchange traded fund markets in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are ‘thriving’, a consultancy report says.
- UK ministers intervene in 8 deals involving China-linked investment — Figures show 866 transactions referred under the security and investment act.
- DHL invests €500mn in Latin America as clients expand supply chains beyond China — Logistics group is building new warehouses across alternative manufacturing hubs including Mexico, Malaysia and Vietnam.
- EY China locked in dispute with global bosses over IT costs — Fee tussle comes as Beijing increases scrutiny of western accounting and consulting firms.
- The new era of big government: Biden rewrites the rules of economic policy — Forty years after Reaganomics rejected government intervention in the economy, the US is embracing massive subsidies. But will voters notice?
The New York Times
- Chinese Hackers Breached Government Email Accounts, Microsoft Says — The hack, by a Chinese group that the company said was intent on conducting espionage, went undetected for a month.
- ‘An Act of War’: Inside America’s Silicon Blockade Against China — The Biden administration thinks it can slow China’s economic growth by cutting it off from advanced computer chips. Could the plan backfire?
Caixin
- Major Chinese Banks Launch Digital Currency Payments That Don’t Need the Internet — Two major Chinese commercial banks are pushing to get more people to use the central bank-created digital currency.
- Chinese Automakers Ride Overseas Demand as Global Expansion Pays Off — Chinese auto exports again shot up in the first six months of this year, largely fueled by rising demand for new-energy vehicles (NEVs) and surging deliveries to a sanction-hit Russia.
- In Depth: China’s Ban on Micron Roils Domestic Memory Chip Market — U.S. giant Micron Technology Inc., one of the world’s largest suppliers of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips, faces a series of setbacks in China.
South China Morning Post
- Can climate envoy John Kerry lower the heat in US-China relations? — Kerry is heading to Beijing as Washington tries to put a floor in the relationship between the two countries.
- China beats SpaceX with world’s first methane-powered rocket launch — Chinese scientists are celebrating after the projectile blasted off successfully from the Gobi desert at 9am on Wednesday.
- China hits back against Nato’s ‘eastward march’ as Indo-Pacific leaders and alliance members meet at summit — Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea attend second day of security alliance meeting in Vilnius, prompting response from Beijing.
Nikkei Asia
- U.S. big tech won’t shake its China addiction — For companies like Apple, Microsoft, Tesla and Qualcomm, decoupling has not dented Chinese market.
- China woos Papua New Guinea with free trade push — Beijing leverages frustrations over economic ties with U.S., Australia.
- US, China should continue talks to avoid tit-for-tat measures — Global economy will suffer if two largest economies escalate restrictions.
Bloomberg
- China Premier Meets Major Tech Companies, Vows More Support — Chinese Premier Li Qiang met with senior executives from the country’s leading technology firms including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and ByteDance Ltd. on Wednesday.
- China Warplanes Make Biggest Taiwan Incursion in 3 Months — A sortie of 32 planes crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait or the island’s air-defense identification zone as of early Wednesday.
- China State Fund Moves to Cut Exposure to Weak LGFVs, Builders — Pension fund asked asset managers to review exposure last week.
Reuters
- Beijing’s regulatory crackdown wipes $1.1 trillion off Chinese Big Tech — Investors are now hoping the strict rules that have stymied growth since late 2020 will start to ease.
- Audi in talks to buy Chinese automaker SAIC’s EV platform — Germany’s Audi is in talks with SAIC Motor Corp to buy an electric vehicle platform from the Chinese state-owned automaker, two people familiar with the matter said.
- Insight: Dispute over China’s embassy in London strains ties with Britain — The officials say the embassy spat has undermined attempts by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to forge a new approach to China.
Other Publications
- Foreign Affairs: The Myth of Neutrality — Countries Will Have to Choose Between America and China.
- CSIS: Buoy Battle in the Spratly Islands — With the Philippines planning to install more buoys by the end of 2023, this trend will remain a point of contention between Manila and Beijing for the foreseeable future.
- The Guardian: Opioid crisis: US and China at odds over influx of fentanyl — Americans are hoping that Beijing will do more to crack down on businesses and individuals that sell fentanyl precursors to international drugs cartels.
- The Toronto Star: Corporate ethics czar launches forced-labour probes into Nike, Dynasty Gold in China — Ottawa’s corporate-ethics watchdog has announced investigations over the possible use of forced labour by China’s Uyghur minority in their supply chains.
- ProPublica: Outlaw Alliance: How China and Chinese Mafias Overseas Protect Each Other’s Interests — The rise of Chinese organized crime in Europe highlights its ties to the Chinese state, national security officials say.
