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
- Meituan’s Profit Triples as Revenue Grows Despite Competition — The Chinese food-delivery giant’s profit more than tripled in the third quarter as revenue jumped.
- Chinese Journalist Sentenced to Seven Years on Spy Charges — Dong Yuyu is a liberal voice who had engaged frequently with diplomats, scholars and journalists from the U.S. and Japan.
- China’s Local Governments Hold Back Wages in Desperate Scrape for Cash — Beijing’s recent attempt to address the trillions in hidden debt held by local governments only scratches the surface.
- Defying Beijing, Taiwan’s President Plans Visit to Hawaii and Guam — Lai Ching-te’s trip has already drawn condemnation from Beijing and could spur China to stage military drills in response.
- China Targets Senior Admiral in New Round of Defense Purges — The investigation into Adm. Miao Hua, a protégé of leader Xi Jinping, follows a spate of disciplinary cases that have targeted senior military officials.
- China and Russia Lead Wage Recovery While Rich Economies Lag, U.N. Says — Real wages are growing again, but remain below their prepandemic levels in many parts of the world even as they surge in China and Russia, the U.N. said in its annual survey of wage developments.
- Oil, Raspberries, Smartphones: What the U.S. Imports From Canada, Mexico and China — The Trump administration could change America’s relationship with its three biggest trading partners.
- Remy Cointreau Expects Sales Slump as China, U.S. Challenges Persist — Remy Cointreau forecast a steeper sales drop and weaker profitability for its fiscal year than analysts had expected, as European distillers grapple with mounting challenges in the U.S. and China.
- How TikTok’s Trump Whisperer Changed Minds in Washington — Tony Sayegh, the head of public affairs at one of TikTok’s biggest investors, led the effort to win Trump’s support for the popular app with ties to China.
- Retail Investors Are Key to Sustaining China’s Stock-Market Rally — Retail investors in China shied away from stocks as markets dropped in 2022 and 2023, but they’ve been roused awake this year by Beijing’s efforts to bolster the economy.
- China Releases Three American Prisoners in Swap With U.S. — The releases were part of a complex series of deals the Biden administration has reached to bring home U.S. citizens from countries with which the U.S. has an adversarial relationship.
- Chinese Ship’s Crew Suspected of Deliberately Dragging Anchor for 100 Miles to Cut Baltic Cables — NATO warships have surrounded Yi Peng 3, a Chinese bulk carrier at the center of an international probe into suspected sabotage.
The Financial Times
- Chinese bond market grapples with ‘Japanification’ — Deflation fuels ‘inexorable’ slide in China’s long-term sovereign bond yields below Japan’s for the first time.
- Elon Musk: the ‘wild card’ in Trump’s dealings with China — Do the billionaire’s longstanding ties to Beijing represent a diplomatic opportunity or a clash of political and business interests?
- China hails US release of citizen convicted over child pornography — Former student freed as part of rare prisoner swap that Beijing said showed it would ‘never abandon compatriots’.
- China probes top officer discipline ‘violations’ — Investigation into Miao Hua takes Xi Jinping’s purge of military to its highest echelons.
- Hong Kong plans crypto tax break for hedge funds and billionaire families — Chinese territory is competing with Singapore and Switzerland to become top offshore finance hub.
- China’s support for Russia has hurt its relations with Europe, say Nordic and Baltic states — Leaders warn Beijing’s backing for Moscow and the war in Ukraine is having a negative impact.
- Chinese companies rush to tap convertible bond market — Alibaba and Ping An among corporates attracted to cheaper form of financing.
- Kylie Jenner’s vodka seltzer deal signals China VC investor’s global push — Neil Shen’s HongShan has struggled to invest its $9bn cash pile in a weak domestic market and tough US controls.
The New York Times
- Here Are the Risks When Zoos Pay for Endangered Species — We tracked $86 million in U.S. money that was supposed to go toward panda conservation in China.
- Millions of Dollars to Protect Pandas Was Spent by China on Roads and Buildings — A Times investigation found that zoos knew conservation money went toward apartment buildings and roads. But they wanted to keep displaying pandas, so nobody looked too closely.
- How China Became the World’s Largest Car Exporter — Tariffs from the United States and other countries are unlikely to stop China’s auto export dominance.
- China Journalist, Dong Yuyu, Is Sentenced to Prison for Espionage — Dong Yuyu, who has written articles critical of the Communist Party, was arrested in 2022 while having lunch with a Japanese diplomat.
- Chinese Women Mobilize Against Subpar Sanitary Pads — An online campaign has prompted major pad manufacturers to apologize. Regulators said they would consider women’s criticisms when writing new standards.
- A Top Chinese Commander Is Suspended Under Suspicion of Corruption — The case of Adm. Miao Hua suggests the persistence of graft at high levels of the military, despite the efforts by Xi Jinping to stamp out corruption.
- President João Lourenco of Angola Discusses Biden’s Upcoming Visit — President João Lourenço of Angola has worked hard to strengthen his country’s partnership with the United States and says the recent election won’t derail that.
- E.U. Vessels Surround Anchored Chinese Ship After Cables Are Severed in Baltic Sea — Multiple countries are investigating and the authorities in Europe say they have not ruled out sabotage. But U.S. intelligence officials have assessed that the cables were not cut deliberately.
- China Has a New Playbook to Counter Trump: ‘Supply Chain Warfare’ — A series of swipes at American companies show how China could take the initiative in a new trade war, using its economic dominance to exact pain.
- 3 Americans Are Said to Be Freed From China in Prisoner Swap — The Americans released, among others, a Chinese intelligence officer who was serving a 20-year sentence in the United States.
Caixin
- E-Commerce Livestream Scandals Prompt Calls for Tighter Oversight — The series of product quality scandals marks a broader trend of misleading advertising in the industry, which is going through a period of sluggish growth.
- In Depth: EU’s Strict Carbon Rules Sap the Energy of Chinese Battery Giants — New regulations impose strict carbon footprint restrictions, overshadowing what was once a more lenient market for Chinese companies.
- Warming Climate Threatens Chinese Farmers’ Livelihoods — Climate change is bringing increasingly extreme weather and pests to major agricultural provinces in the north of China.
- Warm Ties, Low Taxes Make Hungary Attractive to Chinese Firms, Experts Say — So far this year, the country has absorbed nearly half of China’s investment in Europe.
- Hand Back Your Bonuses and Commissions, Evergrande’s Ex-Employees Told — Returned money expected to address gaps in Evergrande Wealth’s repayment obligations.
South China Morning Post
- Why are top scientists leaving the West for China? — A growing number of leading academics are being tempted away from Western countries as they make the move to Chinese institutions.
- Temu, Shein branch deeper into selling toys during holiday shopping season — The two popular budget-shopping platforms are looking to win a bigger slice of the global market for toys.
- China, Pakistan talk security as they target terrorism against belt and road projects — Top Chinese military official meets Pakistani counterpart in wake of attacks against Chinese interests in the South Asian country.
- China expands consumer subsidies, but can it ‘save the day’ for economic growth in 2024? — Eastern China’s Jiangsu province and commercial hub of Shanghai expand trade-in schemes amid efforts to drive up consumption in China.
- Xi Jinping’s ‘city of the future’ just had a record quarter for construction financing — Five batches of ultra-long special bond sales raked in several billion yuan for the Xiongan New Area, as development of ambitious megacity speeds up.
Nikkei Asia
- China stimulus hampered by plunge in land sale income — Local governments wary of issuing new bonds as main revenue halves from peak.
- U.N. launches subsea cable advisory to reduce network risks — New body includes U.S. and Chinese officials, but won’t tackle geopolitics.
- Xi Jinping smiles at Japanese visitors while grimacing at his economy — A kinder diplomatic stance alone cannot address China’s current difficulties.
- British Parliament rejects China’s U.N. claims over Taiwan — Motion adds to international chorus speaking out against Taipei’s exclusion.
- Opinion: Asian capitals seek to master ‘the art of the deal’ to appease Trump — Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei and Beijing prepare offers to fend off any tariff hikes. By Riley Walters.
Bloomberg
- How China Can Hit Back at Trump: Target US Firms, Turn to India, Africa — China wields new powers as it confronts the prospect of another trade conflict with the US, expanding its retaliatory reach in recent years to include tools capable of wreaking havoc on global commerce and finance.
- US Preps China Chip Curbs That Stop Short of Early Proposals — The Biden administration is weighing additional curbs on sales of semiconductor equipment and AI memory chips to China that would escalate the US crackdown on Beijing’s tech ambitions.
- Opinion: Hey, Elon. You Know Who Else Was a Disruptor? Mao — Donald Trump and the Tesla boss aren’t the first to take a wrecking ball to government. They’d be wise to learn from China’s tragic experience. By Minxin Pei.
Reuters
- HSBC pulling back from China credit card business after struggling to expand — The Asia-focused bank has stopped issuing new cards and is working towards winding down the service offered to a large part of China onshore customers, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.
- Chinese ships gather near island disputed with Philippines, satellite images show — One of the images taken by Maxar Technologies on Monday and reviewed by Reuters shows about 60 vessels, some within 2 nautical miles of Thitu, a strategically important island.
- China scientists rush to climate-proof potatoes — China is the world’s biggest producer of potatoes, which are crucial to global food security because of their high yield relative to other staple crops.
Other Publications
- Foreign Policy: Xi Jinping Doesn’t Have an Answer for China’s Demographic Crisis — A call for a “high-quality population” ignores the country’s real problems.
- Foreign Affairs: The Trump Administration’s China Challenge — Rebuilding American Strength Will Take Buy-In at Home and Abroad—and From Trump Himself.
- The Economist: China suffers eruptions from its simmering discontents — Amid random violence and increasing protests, fears mount for social stability.
- The Economist: China’s government is badgering women to have babies — It is testing an expanded pro-natalist playbook.
