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
- Chinese Half-Marathon Champion Is Disqualified—Along With Runners Who Let Him Win — Video showed other athletes appearing to slow down for a top Chinese runner at the Beijing Half-Marathon; an investigation put the blame on a sponsor.
- China Hits U.S. With Levy on Chemical as Trade Tensions Rise — China slapped a levy on imports from the U.S. of a widely used chemical, a small salvo in an escalating trade dispute between Washington and Beijing.
- China Orders Apple to Remove Popular Messaging Apps — WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram among apps cut from iPhone app store to comply with censorship demand.
- Flood of Cheap Chinese Steel Fuels Global Backlash — The country’s property bust has saddled its steelmakers with a glut of unsold metal that they are now shipping overseas at knockdown prices.
- Congress Fast-Tracks TikTok Ban Legislation, Setting Up Possible Passage This Month — The legislation would extend the period to up to 12 months for the popular Chinese-controlled app in the U.S. to seek new owners.
- Wall Street Steered Billions to Blacklisted Chinese Companies, House Probe Finds — The investigation focused on BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and MSCI, a major compiler of stock indexes. Both firms say they violated no laws.
- Ericsson Lays Off More Than 200 Employees in China — Ericsson has laid off 240 employees in China, part of a restructuring in the country that will affect one of its largest research hubs globally.
The Financial Times
- Apple removes WhatsApp and Threads from China store under pressure from Beijing — Internet regulator orders delisting of two Meta-owned apps over ‘national security concerns’.
The New York Times
- Apple Says It Was Ordered to Pull WhatsApp From China App Store — Apple said it removed WhatsApp and Threads from its China app offerings Friday on Beijing’s orders, amid technological tensions between the U.S. and China.
- Satellite Data Reveals Sinking Risk for China’s Cities — Development and groundwater pumping are causing land subsidence and heightening the risks of sea level rise.
- Chinese Exports Are Threatening Biden’s Industrial Agenda — The president is increasingly hitting back with tariffs and other measures meant to restrict imports, raising tensions with Beijing.
Caixin
- Shanghai Creates $18 Billion State Investment Giant — Merger of two investment firms will create a juggernaut providing financial backing to technology and innovation startups.
- Exclusive: ICBC Reshuffles Leadership at Core Department and Wealth Management Unit — Wang Hailu to be chair of ICBC Wealth Management, bringing experience in bond and foreign exchange trading.
- Exclusive: CATL Founder Upbeat About Ford Battery Plant Tie-Up, EVs Future in China — However, the battery giant faces problems, including EU regulatory issues and the difficulty of commercializing solid-state batteries, Zeng Yuqun tells Caixin.
- Meituan Names Wang Puzhong as CEO of New Core Local Commerce Business — Food delivery giant looks to a younger generation for its management team as it refocuses on its core business.
South China Morning Post
- Communist Party’s security chief to visit Russia ahead of Putin’s expected China trip as law enforcement ties grow — Chen Wenqing, who oversees police and intelligence, will go to Moscow for international security meeting a month after terror attack rattles Russia and ahead of anticipated visit by Vladimir Putin to mark 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations.
- China’s 4 new ‘AI tigers’ – Baichuan, Zhipu AI, Moonshot AI and MiniMax – emerge as investor favourites — Baichuan, Zhipu AI, Moonshot AI and MiniMax are amassing billions of yuan of funding from domestic tech giants, venture capitalists and state-backed investors.
- Lenovo and Alibaba team up to build AI computers, as generative AI race heats up in China — Lenovo has been strengthening its focus on AI amid a broader trend in the global PC industry to integrate the fast-developing technology into various products and services.
- Chinese smartphone vendor OnePlus faces potential wider sales ban in India amid complaints raised by another retail group — The grievances raised by the All India Mobile Retailers Association show the current precarious position of OnePlus’ business in the world’s second-largest smartphone market.
Nikkei Asia
- China claims South China Sea deal with Philippines’ Duterte — Under the agreement, which isn’t recognized by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Manila apparently promised not to repair or build structures at Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed Spratly Islands.
- Chinese warships at Cambodian base for months, CSIS analysis shows — Two Chinese warships have been present at Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base for much of the past five months, satellite images show, raising questions about the permanency of China’s military presence at the facility.
- To beat China EVs on cost, Honda supplier and ArcelorMittal look beyond gigacasting — G-Tekt will receive technology on license from Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal that will be used to form EV body sections combining around five to 10 components into one large piece.
- Opinion: China’s technological development has run out of steam — A growing number of economists are questioning whether China’s gross domestic product will ever surpass that of the U.S. as the country’s once-unstoppable momentum continues to ebb away. By Nina Xiang.
Bloomberg
- No Link Too Tenuous for Retail Traders in China AI Gold Rush — Hunt is on for potential homegrown winners – however obscure – as China builds out an alternative ecosystem.
- Foreign Investment in China Falls With Cloud Over Growth Outlook — New actually utilized foreign investment into China was 87 billion yuan ($12 billion) last month,mdown 38% compared to the same month in 2023.
- Volvo Falls After China’s Geely Sells $1.3 Billion of Shares — Shares of truckmaker Volvo AB dropped as much as 5.9% in Stockholm on Friday on news that China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group had sold the entirety of its Class B shares, worth about 14.1 billion Swedish kronor ($1.3 billion).
- Chinese Auto Tech Should Be Banned at US Bases, Lawmakers Say — US lawmakers urged the Pentagon to bar Internet-connected vehicles with Chinese technology from entering US military bases, building on a Biden administration probe into security risks.
Reuters
- Taiwan says new Chinese air routes threaten Taiwanese islands’ flight safety — The new Chinese routes to China’s Xiamen and Fuzhou cities run alongside existing routes to the islands of Kinmen and Matsu, which have regular flights to and from Taiwan.
- China’s steel sector has bigger worries than Biden tariff hike — In recent years, Beijing has imposed caps on steel production both to reduce supply and curb carbon emissions, and industry watchers and insiders say further output cuts are needed to curtail overcapacity.
- China’s drugmakers can’t sell mRNA shots but haven’t quit yet — China’s vaccine developers stuck with unused mRNA COVID shots and idle manufacturing plants are pursuing new targets for the novel messenger RNA technology, but they face a tough path.
Other Publications
- Foreign Policy: Forget About Chips — China Is Coming for Ships — Beijing’s grab for hegemony in a critical sector follows a familiar playbook.
- AP: ‘There is no time to waste’: EU leaders want to boost competitiveness to close gap with US and China — Europe is now feeling pressure amid U.S. and Chinese efforts to support investment in domestic production through subsidies and tax breaks.
- The Washington Post: Opinion: The terrible lesson Biden learned from Trump on trade — Mere days ago, the White House warned in a statement about the catastrophically inflationary effects of Trump’s proposed tariffs. Then, in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, Biden promptly forgot his own warning. By Catherine Rampell.
- The Economist: China is talking to Taiwan’s next leader, just not directly — Officials in Beijing want the island’s new president to be more like one from the past.
- The Economist: Why so many Chinese graduates cannot find work — Our number-crunching suggests that their plight could be much worse than previously thought.
- BBC: Why a deluge of Chinese-made drugs is hard to curb — The US says Chinese-made opioids are fuelling the worst drug crisis in the country’s history.
