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
- How China Tried to Fix the Stock Market—and Broke the Quants — Beijing wanted to end a stock-market slump. That led to unintended consequences.
- China Raises Fines on Mintz Due-Diligence Firm — New York-based Mintz last year was hit in a crackdown on businesses conducting corporate probes in China.
- U.S. Lawmakers Push for Deep-Sea Mining Funding in New Bill — West Virginia Rep. Carol Miller, one of the sponsors, said the bill would reduce China’s hold on critical minerals.
- Now Lawyers Are Suffering From China’s Deal Slump — The world’s second-largest economy was once a money-spinner for lawyers and bankers. Not anymore.
- Li Auto Shares Rise After Stronger Weekly Sales, Price Cuts — The gains come after Li Auto said its EV sales in China surpassed those of Huawei-backed automaker Seres during the March 4-10 period.
The Financial Times
- US solar manufacturers in ‘dire situation’ as imports soar — Domestic industry wants stronger tariffs as subsidies have not done enough to ward off Chinese competition.
- Cathay reports highest annual profit since 2010 on strong flights demand — Chair declares Hong Kong’s flag airline has left pandemic behind after three years of losses.
- China’s treatment of local debt ‘ulcer’ threatens growth target — Beijing clamps down on province-level infrastructure spending even as it tries to stimulate economy.
- US steel unions urge Biden to open probe into Chinese shipbuilding — President expected to back trade investigation as industry becomes 2024 election issue.
- Shipbuilding: the new battleground in the US-China trade war — Labour unions are urging the Biden administration to investigate China’s dominance of naval engineering, potentially inflaming Sino-American tensions.
The New York Times
- China Condemns U.S. Proposal to Force the Sale of TikTok — The foreign ministry accused Washington of “resorting to hegemonic moves” ahead of House vote on a bill aimed at ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company.
- Malaysia Rises as Crucial Link in Chip Supply Chain — U.S. and European companies looking to diversify from China are expanding around Southeast Asia, a sign of how geopolitics is reshaping tech manufacturing.
- What to Know About the Proposed TikTok Legislation — The House plans to vote on Wednesday on a bill that would force TikTok’s Chinese parent to sell the popular social media app.
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Caixin
- Exclusive: China Probes Another Central Bank Official Linked to Fallen Businessman — A central bank official’s detention earlier this month is connected to a businessman who had bribed disgraced former People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Deputy Governor Fan Yifei, multiple sources with knowledge of the matter told Caixin.
- Funds Pour Into Chinese AI Startups Challenging OpenAI’s Sora in Video Generation — Venture capital investors are pouring hundreds of millions of yuan into China’s burgeoning video generation startups, betting on their potential in the artificial intelligence race to rival OpenAI’s text-to-video model Sora.
- One in Five of China’s Electric Car Owners Wouldn’t Buy Another Due to Charging Problems, McKinsey Report Reveals — A report by McKinsey China has shown significant disillusionment among Chinese electric car owners in 2023, with 22% stating they wouldn’t consider new energy vehicles (NEVs) for their next car. This figure starkly contrasts with the mere 3% recorded in 2022.
South China Morning Post
- Sweden’s Ericsson denies exiting China market despite 5G equipment competition from Huawei, geopolitical tensions — Swedish telecoms equipment giant Ericsson denied that it is withdrawing from the China market, even as local rivals including Huawei Technologies pose growing challenges in the country’s 5G equipment industry.
- World’s first AI-developed drug for deadly lung disease enters landmark clinical trials in China, US — Evidence that AI tools can slash years off early-stage analysis will ‘revolutionise drug discovery’, researchers say.
- Intel still sells to Huawei millions of dollars’ worth of advanced chips, while AMD receives no such licence: sources — The US chip giant still retains a Trump-era licence to sell advanced laptop CPUs to Huawei despite pressure on Biden to revoke the permission, sources say.
Nikkei Asia
- China reclaims No. 2 spot in global art market, report says — Strong rebound was driven by pent-up demand after Beijing axed COVID curbs.
- China faces familiar growth dilemma as economy slows — Anxious to avoid reinflating a property bubble, Beijing chooses caution over expansion.
- Opinion: Red Sea inaction proves China is not a ‘responsible stakeholder’ — Beijing well-positioned to join fight against Houthi piracy but is standing aside. By Marco Rubio
Bloomberg
- China Adviser Flags Geopolitical Risks in Xi’s Industry Push — China needs to boost domestic demand and adjust its industrial policy to counter rising criticism of overcapacity from the US and Europe, according to a prominent economist who advises the government.
- UK Weighs Curbs on Chinese Official Visas Over Spy Risk — Rishi Sunak’s government is considering curbing the number of Chinese nationals who can enter the UK on official business for the People’s Republic and bypass normal visa checks, over fears the system is being abused to bring spies into Britain.
- China Leads the US, Russia in Hypersonics, Pentagon Analyst Says — China leads in developing, testing and deploying hypersonics, besting Russia as the US works to catch up on the new weapons that travel five times the speed of sound, a senior US defense intelligence analyst says.
Reuters
- US spy chief “cannot rule out” that China would use TikTok to influence US elections — China could use social media app TikTok to influence the 2024 U.S. elections, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a House of Representatives intelligence committee hearing on Tuesday.
- Sports and music lessons for China’s kids in sharp decline as purse strings tighten — Spending heavily on after-school activities was once par for the course for middle-class families who usually have just one child, but the world’s second-largest economy is in the throes of a crisis of confidence.
- STMicroelectronics CEO says China is a growth market despite US chip war — China remains an important growth market for French-Italian semiconductor STMicroelectronics, despite increasing U.S-China tensions over semiconductors, the company’s chief executive said on Tuesday.
Other Publications
- Associated Press: Elderly retirees face big losses after Chinese trust goes bust, reflecting turbulent economy — Some investors in a troubled trust fund in China are facing financial ruin under a government plan to return a fraction of their money, casualties of a slump in the property industry and a broader economic slowdown.
- CNN: House expected to vote on bill that could ban TikTok amid Trump resistance — The House is expected to vote Wednesday on a bill that could lead to a nationwide ban against TikTok, a major challenge to one of the world’s most popular social media apps.
- The Atlantic: Could a TikTok Ban Actually Happen? — The push to curtail the platform has bipartisan support, but it faces major hurdles.
- Washington Post: Biden or Trump? China can’t pick its ‘poison’ to mend strained ties. — In the United States, Donald Trump and Joe Biden have launched presidential campaigns focused on how different they and their leadership styles are. But China sees very little contrast between the two of them.
- Quartz: Nissan and Honda are getting beat in China by local EV makers and may cut back — The Japanese automakers’ sales in China have been falling for years.
- The Information: TikTok Owner Boosts China Ties, Invests in State-Backed Chip Firm — As the Chinese government races to catch up in advanced computer chips, it has found an ally in ByteDance, the owner of TikTok.
