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.
Paid subscribers can have this list emailed directly to their inboxes every day. Subscribe here, and then send us an email at contact@thewirechina.com to opt in for the Daily Roundup email.
The Wall Street Journal
- China Is the Only Major Economy to Report Economic Growth for 2020 — GDP rises 6.5% from a year earlier in the fourth quarter.
- Tesla Starts Delivering China-Made Model Y Crossover — Model Y is the second vehicle Tesla is making in China, the world’s biggest EV market.
- China’s Xi Looks to Take Advantage of a Strong Economic Hand — While Biden has signaled plans to work with allies to check China, Xi has had his own diplomatic wins.
- China Still Grew and Fueled Its Rise as Covid-19 Shook the Global Economy — GDP rose 2.3% last year, making China the only major world economy to record gains.
- What WHO Won’t Learn From China — Beijing likes the story that Covid began elsewhere but at least it could tell us about the virus in China today.
- In China, Tech-Worker Deaths Spark Online Backlash — Criticism of companies grows after workers expose marathon hours, labor disputes.
- China’s Economic Recovery Belies a Lingering Productivity Challenge — State investments to fuel growth are amplifying slowing growth in productivity, an IMF report finds.
- Even Under New Leadership, Germany Won’t Confront China — Successor to Angela Merkel is unlikely to join a Biden-led alliance to confront the Asian giant.
- Chinese Property Developers Have Huge Debts to Refinance — The country’s real-estate firms need to repay up to an estimated $53.5 billion of offshore debt this year.
- U.A.E. Pushes Ahead With Chinese Covid-19 Vaccine, Hoping to Avoid Lockdowns as Cases Surge — The Gulf nation expects to vaccinate half its population before the end of March.
- China’s Growth: Don’t Mistake the Cyclical for the Structural — China handled the pandemic well, but it was also lucky. A strong 2021 seems assured, but 2022 and beyond could be challenging.
The Financial Times
- European stocks weak despite tailwind from Chinese output data — Economic and human cost of new Covid-19 variants weigh on investor sentiment.
- China’s economy expands at faster rate than before coronavirus — GDP rises 6.5% in fourth quarter as other big economies struggle to recover from pandemic.
- America’s disarray is China’s opportunity — China’s economy is growing strongly while the US is mired in a political crisis.
- China Evergrande’s electric-vehicle ambitions stall — World’s most indebted property group’s strategy encounters delays and government scrutiny.
- Chinese and Russian vaccines in high demand as world scrambles for doses — Sales represent coup for Beijing and Moscow, even as concerns over pharma standards linger.
- Arm China chief makes $179m gain on stake in chip company’s customer — Allen Wu is fighting accusations of conflicts of interest at Chinese joint venture.
- Five things to watch for as China reports fourth-quarter GDP — Data to be published on Monday will show whether recovery continues to accelerate.
- US imposes sanctions on Chinese officials over Hong Kong crackdown — Trump administration ratchets up pressure on Beijing in its final days.
- Shares in China’s Xiaomi tumble after US investment ban — Washington order means US shareholders in smartphone group could be forced to divest.
The New York Times
- Most Major Economies Are Shrinking. Not China’s. — The Chinese economy grew 2.3 percent last year, the country’s National Bureau of Statistics announced on Monday in Beijing.
- In Hong Kong, a New Party Calls for Stability (and Raises Suspicions) — Democracy advocates have called the Bauhinia Party a “Trojan horse” for the Chinese government. But Beijing’s local allies are wary of it, too.
- Hong Kong Protesters to Seek Asylum in U.S. — The five men fled by boat to Taiwan in July, soon after China imposed Hong Kong’s harsh national security law. This week, they landed in New York.
- How China’s Economy Bounced Back From Covid-19 — Officials pushed factories to reopen the same way they forced the country to shut down. In one small town, it led to a chili-sauce-fueled revival.
- TikTok Is Poised to Outlast Trump, and to Test Biden — It is unclear how the president-elect will approach the Chinese tech industry.
Caixin
- Small-Loan Firms Won’t Be Subject to New Interest-Rate Ruling, China’s Top Court Says — Lenders had worried that the rate cap stipulated in an earlier ruling would hurt their businesses.
- What You Need to Know About Ant Group’s Suspended IPO and the Future of Chinese Fintech — The regulatory storm that has shaken the industry didn’t come out of the blue. But its toughness may have been a surprise.
- Hong Kong’s Bankruptcy Filings Hit Four-Year High Amid Pandemic — Number of bankruptcy filings jumped 6% to nearly 8,700 in 2020.
- Cover Story: Why China Plans to Tax the Booming Digital Economy — E-commerce now accounts for more than a third of GDP, a fat, $5.52 trillion target for filling government coffers.
- China’s Interest Rates Are Just Right, PBOC Official Says — Central bank withdraws cash from financial system and lets the air out of speculation about a pre-holiday cut in banks’ reserve requirements.
- Update: China Trade Surplus Hits Record as Exports Surge More Than Expected — Goods shipments rose 18.1% in December, marking the seventh straight month of growth.
- Beijing Completes Equity Transfers Designed to Shore Up Stressed Pension System — Shareholders managed to finish the transfers, which have long been criticized for proceeding too slowly, in time to meet an end-of-year deadline.
- Hong Kong Offers $46.4 Million to Employers Hiring Local College Graduates — With youth unemployment soaring, 18-month subsidy plan under Greater Bay Area job-creation program would place young people in mainland positions.
- China’s No. 2 Short Video App Kuaishou Set for Feb. 5 IPO, Source Says — Listing will test the market’s appetite for TikTok-like stocks as ByteDance’s Douyin weighs going public.
- Hyundai to Produce Hydrogen Fuel Cell Batteries in Guangzhou — The South Korean automaker has made China battery cell production a top goal.
- Exclusive: Game Executive Murder Suspect a ‘Breaking Bad’ Fan, Tested Poisons on Pets, Sources Say — Xu Yao, believed to be the main suspect in the death of Yoozoo Games chief Lin Qi, had set up a lab in Shanghai after buying poisons on the dark web, several sources told Caixin.
- Property Prices Climb at Growing Rate in China’s Biggest Cities — Demand for housing in competitive school districts helping drive up costs.
- Trump’s Onslaught on China Inc. Leaves Key Decisions for Biden — Most of the current administration’s tougher stances against China have received bipartisan support in Congress.
- Three Chinese Aviation Giants Added to U.S. Blacklist — Comac, China National Aviation and Grand China Air cited for alleged military links, posing threat to China’s plane-building ambitions.
- Chinese Social Media Platform Weibo Punished for Spreading Pornographic Content — Social media platform Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, has been punished for its inability to rein in pornographic content, becoming the second major Chinese social media platform in a week found guilty of spreading sexual and improper content online, as Beijing steps up efforts to clean up the country’s internet.
- Huawei to Establish Biggest-Ever Overseas Flagship Store in Riyadh — Chinese tech giant Huawei plans to set up a flagship store in Riyadh in an effort to grow the influence of its digital products and services in Saudi Arabia, as the kingdom expands access to internet services, Reuters reported on Friday, citing the country’s investment ministry.
- China’s First High-School Education Group Files for $100m US IPO — First High-School Education Group, which operates private high schools and offers tutoring services in China, has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the US on Thursday to raise up to $100 million, a placeholder amount likely to change.
South China Morning Post
- China’s coronavirus success shows it has caught up with West in some areas of innovation, Nobel laureate Paul Romer says — China’s success in combating the coronavirus is a sign that it has already caught up with the United States and other Western nations in some areas of innovation, including public health policy, according to Paul Romer, co-recipient of the 2018 Nobel Prize in economics.
- Outcry over revived dam plans for China’s biggest freshwater lake — More than 1,000 opponents of plans to build a dam on China’s biggest freshwater lake have signed a petition calling for the project to be abandoned, saying it will take a huge toll on endangered migratory birds and the rare Yangtze finless porpoise.
- China takes victory lap over economic recovery, but critics find cracks in success story — Just under a year ago, authorities in the central Chinese city of Wuhan announced a complete travel ban in a bid to contain a novel coronavirus outbreak that had, at that point, officially killed 17 people.
- China’s economic boom is a great story, but for many it still reads like Les Misérables — For those following China’s economic and social developments, a common impression is that there are always two seemingly conflicting stories unfolding in the world’s second-largest economy.
- South China Sea: focus on oil and gas, not maritime dispute, Beijing urges Philippines — China and the Philippines should not be distracted by their disputes in the South China Sea and should instead focus on advancing cooperation on oil and gas exploration in the region, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said when wrapping up his week-long tour of Southeast Asia.
- China sanctions US lawmakers, officials over Hong Kong, Taiwan moves — China has announced sanctions on US officials and lawmakers in response to similar US action last week over the political crackdown in Hong Kong and Washington’s efforts to forge links with Taiwan.
- Tencent vs Huawei: China’s gaming giants have the upper hand in fight over revenue sharing on app stores — The recent public spat between Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings and telecommunications equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co has highlighted a shift in the balance of power between game developers and distribution channels, as players increasingly focus their interest on a small number of popular games.
- China GDP: economy set to confirm recovery from coronavirus, but new cases cloud outlook — China is expected to confirm on Monday that it was the world’s first major economy to overcome the damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic and post positive growth for 2020, although the world’s second largest economy still faces a bumpy road ahead.
- China’s pork output recovered ‘higher than expected’ last year after African swine fever ravaged 2019 — China’s pork output posted a sharp recovery last year after the sector was decimated by an incurable hog disease in 2019, official data showed on Monday.
- China’s bank regulator gives a vote of confidence to Hong Kong’s ‘vital and indispensable’ role as Asia’s financial hub — Hong Kong has a vital and indispensable role to play in China to facilitate the economy’s so-called dual circulation development, as well as in the internationalisation of the yuan and the growth of the Greater Bay Area, said the country’s bank regulator.
- China’s ban on Australian coal drives diversification, but can it fill the gap? — In December, South Africa dispatched fresh shipments of thermal coal to China for the first time since 2014, with word in the industry that more was on the way.
- Will Joe Biden’s US$1.9 trillion ‘American Rescue Plan’ be a boon for China, or could excessive liquidity lead to financial trouble? — US President-elect Joe Biden’s newly outlined US$1.9 trillion stimulus package looks to have global implications – prompting China’s central bank to call attention to growing external risks to its economy and that of the world at large.
- Hong Kong’s Ocean Park seeks HK$2.8 billion to survive as it transitions with new entertainment zone, conservation efforts — Hong Kong’s embattled Ocean Park, which is seeking HK$2.8 billion in fresh government funding to stay afloat and launch new initiatives, plans to revamp its business model by charging fees for individual attractions and offering free access to a retail, dining and entertainment zone.
- Strong sales at Wheelock’s Monaco project bode well as hundreds queue for Hong Kong’s first new homes launch of 2021 — The first major property launch of 2021 in Hong Kong set a promising bar for the year ahead, as hundreds of homebuyers jostled to snap up flats at Wheelock Properties’ new Monaco project in Kai Tak.
- Coronavirus: Hong Kong faces new unemployment high, but finance chief warns worse may follow Lunar New Year — Hong Kong’s finance chief has warned unemployment will reach a record high in official figures set to lay bare the full-year impact of the coronavirus pandemic, as he predicted worse could be in store for the economy.
- Long wait for help: Hong Kong’s stricken businesses say red tape is delaying critical Covid-19 subsidies — More than a thousand struggling businesses say red tape is keeping them in limbo after months of waiting for critical anti-pandemic financial aid from the Hong Kong government.
- Arbitrator’s eBRAM offers quick mediation of contractual disputes for HK$200 as Covid-19 roils Hong Kong’s small businesses — An arbitrator backed by Hong Kong’s government is preparing for contractual disputes to increase in the new year, as the coronavirus outbreak disrupts business operations and work arrangements in a city that is still struggling with its worst recession on record.
- TSMC gears up for mass production of 3-nanometre chips for high-end computers and 5G phones — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s biggest contract chip maker, is gearing up to roll out its newest chip production process, enabling the development of integrated circuits that speed up the performance of consumer electronics devices without sacrificing battery life.
- Food delivery workers want more legal protections after Ele.me driver sets himself on fire to protest unpaid wages — Recent tragedies in China‘s food delivery industry have again pushed the gig economy into the spotlight, as the public contemplates the plight of the nation’s delivery drivers and some gig workers call for better legal protections.
- Trump slams China’s Huawei, blocking supplies from Intel and others, insiders say — The Trump administration notified several Huawei suppliers, including chip maker Intel, that it is revoking certain licences to sell to the Chinese company and intends to reject dozens of other applications to supply the telecommunications firm, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
- What blockchain is, how it works and how China will lead the world — When the Chinese government effectively banned cryptocurrencies in 2017, the future of blockchain technology in the world’s second-largest economy did not look bright. But an endorsement from President Xi Jinping in late 2019 completely turned things around.
- Pinduoduo loses exclusive partnership with CCTV for China’s Spring Festival Gala — State broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) has cancelled its exclusive advertising deal with e-commerce giant Pinduoduo for this year’s Spring Festival Gala, the country’s most-watched national network TV broadcast, as the company remains embroiled in a controversy over working conditions, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.
Bloomberg
- China in Talks With Kenya for Debt Relief After Paris Club Deal — China is in talks with Kenya on a debt-service suspension deal, its embassy in Nairobi said, days after the Paris Club agreed to delay $300 million in payments by the East African nation.
- Sinovac Steps Up Defense of Shot After Confusing Data — China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd. defended the efficacy of its Covid-19 shot, saying the vaccine that’s being rolled out from Indonesia to Brazil despite inconsistent data readouts is more effective in preventing the disease if the two-dose regime is administered over a longer time frame.
- Covid Lockdowns Are Spreading a Year After China Shocked World — A year after the lockdown imposed in the Chinese city of Wuhan shocked the world, the tactic is turning out to be an enduring tool for quelling the coronavirus almost everywhere.
- Hong Kong Experts Back Pfizer Shots, Clearing Way for Approval — A panel of experts said they have recommended that Hong Kong approve the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE coronavirus vaccine for use, clearing the way for a regulatory greenlight as the city tries to stamp out a winter outbreak that appears to be worsening.
- China’s Strong Growth Masks Unbalanced Recovery as Incomes Lag — China’s rapid economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic masks the fact that the gap between rich and poor remains wide, holding back a stronger turnaround in consumption.
- China ‘Already Decided’ to Sanction U.S. Officials Over Taiwan — China said it “has already decided” to sanction some U.S. officials over involvement in Taiwan issues, as the Trump administration prepares to hand over to President-elect Joe Biden.
- China’s Growth Beats Estimates as Economy Powers Out of Covid — China’s economy roared back to pre-pandemic growth rates in the fourth quarter as its industrial engines fired up to meet surging demand for exports, pushing the full-year expansion beyond estimates and propelling its global advance.
- China Calls U.S. Covid Lab Claims ‘Lies,’ ‘Conspiracy Theories’ — China accused the U.S. of spreading “lies” and “conspiracy theories” after the Trump administration said it had new information suggesting the coronavirus might have emerged from a Chinese laboratory.
- H.K. Activist Blasts HSBC CEO’s Explanation on Account Block — Former Hong Kong lawmaker Ted Hui stepped up his criticism of HSBC Holdings Plc as Chief Executive Officer Noel Quinn reached out to him personally to explain why the lender froze his accounts after he fled the city for self-exile in the U.K.
- Chinese Vaping Firm Seeks Up to $1.2 Billion in U.S. IPO — Chinese e-cigarette maker RLX Technology Inc. is looking to raise as much as $1.17 billion from a U.S. initial public offering, highlighting how American stock exchanges remain attractive fund-raising avenues for mainland firms despite heated tensions between the world’s two biggest economies.
- Tianqi Lithium Scraps Share Sale After Exchange Queries Plan — Tianqi Lithium Corp. halted a private share-sale plan after a Chinese exchange queried the deal.
- China’s Fast GDP Growth Doesn’t Make It a Global Economic Leader — Even as Beijing posts impressive GDP figures, it’s a long way from setting the direction for global policy.
- Stock Analysts Most Bullish on Chinese Companies in a Decade — Equity analysts just keep getting more bullish on Asian companies, especially in China, where the proportion of buy equivalent ratings in local stocks has now surpassed South Korea to the highest since 2011.
- Telsa’s Example Shouldn’t Mean Blank Checks for Chinese EV Firms — Just because capital is flowing in doesn’t mean these companies are the next Tesla.
- China’s High-Yield Bond Market Is Rocked by More Fear and Further Selloffs — Calm has not returned to the high-yield marketplace as another big developer runs into investor nervousness.
- Founder of Trump-Blacklisted Firm Ostracized in China Too — The man who runs a Chinese company put on President Donald Trump’s blacklist because it allegedly poses a threat to national security can’t even buy a high-speed train ticket or stay in a posh hotel, Chinese court rulings show.
- Global Hedge Funds Struggle Even in a More Open China Market — Global asset managers are struggling to find a foothold in China’s 3.74 trillion yuan ($578 billion) hedge fund industry, despite long-awaited policy changes designed to give foreigners more paths to invest.
- Fiat-PSA Union Denies Reports of Tie-Ups With Chinese Firms — Stellantis NV, the newly-formed company from the merger between Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and PSA Group, has denied a local news report that it is in talks for a new merger with Chinese carmakers, Stellantis said Sunday in an emailed statement to Bloomberg News.
- Adviser to Five U.S. Presidents Expects China Tariffs to Remain — The upcoming inauguration of Joe Biden as president will allow the U.S. to reboot its relationship with China after a tumultuous four years under Donald Trump. What exactly will that mean for these two competing economic powers?
- Merkel’s Successor Needs to Strike Right Tone With Biden and EU — The election of Armin Laschet as the new leader of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union is good news for the European Union and those who welcome engagement with China and Russia.
- Chinese City Reports Coronavirus Found on Ice Cream — The coronavirus was found on ice cream produced in eastern China, prompting a recall of cartons from the same batch, according to the government.
- China to Donate 500,000 Vaccine Doses to Philippines — China will donate 500,000 coronavirus vaccine doses to the Philippines and vowed to accelerate infrastructure investment in the Southeast Asian nation as ties between the two improve.
- A New Book on China’s Cultural Revolution Reveals Lessons Obscured By Politics — No one denies the Cultural Revolution was a catastrophe. Yang Jisheng’s The World Turned Upside Down says its most important lessons are obscured by the interests of the winning side.
- Trump’s China Inc. Onslaught Leaves Key Decisions for Biden — A year ago, President Xi Jinping asked the U.S. to treat Chinese companies “fairly” in a letter read out at the White House to mark the signing of a landmark trade deal between the world’s biggest economies.
- Australia Joins U.S., U.K. in Warning Firms Over Xinjiang Ties — Australia joined allies including the U.S. and the U.K. in raising concern about the use of products from China’s Xinjiang region in global supply chains.
Reuters
- Chinese pork output beats expectations in 2020, after swine fever hit — China’s pork output fell less than expected last year as it recovered from the impact of an incurable hog disease that depleted breeding stock, official data showed on Monday.
- China’s retrieved lunar samples weigh less than targeted — Lunar rocks retrieved by a historic Chinese mission to the moon weighed less than initially targeted, but China is still willing to study the samples with foreign scientists, the mission’s spokesman said on Monday.
- China’s Kuaishou Hong Kong IPO could value firm at about $60bln -sources — Chinese online short video company Kuaishou will open the books for its Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) next Monday to raise at least $5 billion in a deal that could value the company at about $60 billion, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
- Exclusive: Trump admin slams China’s Huawei, halting shipments from Intel, others – sources — The Trump administration notified Huawei suppliers, including chipmaker Intel, that it is revoking certain licenses to sell to the Chinese company and intends to reject dozens of other applications to supply the telecommunications firm, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
- China to sanction U.S. officials for ‘nasty behaviour’ over Taiwan — U.S. officials who have engaged in “nasty behaviour” over Chinese-claimed Taiwan will face sanctions, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday, after Washington lifted curbs on exchanges between U.S. and Taiwanese officials.
- China’s economy picks up speed in fourth quarter, ends 2020 in solid shape after COVID-19 shock — China’s economy picked up speed in the fourth quarter, with growth beating expectations as it ended a rough coronavirus-striken 2020 in remarkably good shape and remained poised to expand further this year even as the global pandemic rages unabated.
- China’s fourth quarter GDP grows 6.5% year-on-year, beats expectations — China’s economy grew at a faster-than-expected pace in the fourth quarter of last year, ending a rough coronavirus-stricken 2020 in remarkably good shape and remained solidly poised to expand further this year.
- China environmental groups slam plan to dam key lake on Yangtze river — Chinese conservationists have slated a plan to dam a key flood outlet for the Yangtze river, the Poyang lake, fearing a hammer blow for an already fragile ecosystem, a rest area for migratory birds and home of the endangered Yangtze river porpoise.
- China industrial output rises 7.3% year-on-year in December; retail sales miss forecast — China’s industrial output rose at a faster-than-expected rate of 7.3% in December from a year ago, data showed on Monday, expanding for the ninth straight month as the vast manufacturing sector, aided by strong exports, continues its post-COVID recovery.
- Philippines, China vow cooperation for post-pandemic recovery — China promised on Saturday to donate 500,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to the Philippines as the two countries signed infrastructure deals aimed at boosting post-pandemic recovery efforts, officials said.
- Brazil’s Bolsonaro to allow China’s Huawei in 5G auctions: newspaper — Brazil’s government will not seek to bar Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co Ltd from 5G network auctions slated for June this year, newspaper Estado de S. Paulo reported on Saturday, citing government and industry sources.
- Serbia receives million doses of China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine — A plane carrying one million doses of Sinopharm’s COVID-19 vaccine arrived on Saturday in Serbia, making it the first European country to receive the Chinese vaccine for mass inoculation programmes.
- U.S. retailers told to target forced labor in China after cotton import crackdown — A crackdown by the United States on cotton imports from China’s Xinjiang region is a “big red flag” that should spur retailers to ensure their supply chains are free of forced labor involving Uighur Muslims, according to a senior U.S. customs official.
- Trump directs government to minimize procurement from China — In another action against China days before he leaves office, U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday directed government departments to look at ways to minimize procurement of Chinese goods and services to reduce the risks from espionage, his national security adviser said.
- Oil drops over 2% on China lockdowns, U.S. stimulus concerns — Oil prices fell more than 2% on Friday, with both contracts posting a loss on the week as concerns about Chinese cities in lockdown due to coronavirus outbreaks tempered a rally driven by strong import data from the world’s biggest crude importer.
- Vaccine shipments to EU slow as Turkey, China ramp up inoculations — Some EU nations are receiving fewer than expected doses of coronavirus vaccines as U.S. pharmaceutical firm Pfizer slows shipments, while Turkey and China race ahead with inoculations amid surging infections worldwide.
- Cambodia says China donates 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines — Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Friday that China will provide a million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to be used for inoculating 500,000 people.
Xinhua
- China’s GDP tops 100 trln yuan in 2020 — Tourists shop at a duty-free shopping mall in Sanya City, south China’s Hainan Province, Oct. 5, 2020. China’s gross domestic product (GDP) exceeded the 100-trillion-yuan (15.42 trillion U.S. dollars) threshold as it posted a 2.3 percent year-on-year expansion to 101.5986 trillion yuan in 2020, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Monday.
- China’s investment in water conservancy hits new high in 2020 — China’s investment in water conservancy facilities hit a record high of 770 billion yuan (about 118.5 billion U.S. dollars) last year, according to the Ministry of Water Resources.
- China’s securities regulator approves trading of peanut futures — The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) has given the green light to the trading of peanut futures, an important oil crop.
- China central bank vows consistent policies to keep housing prices stable — China’s central bank will keep its regulation on the real estate sector consistent to promote the sector’s healthy and stable development, an official said Friday.
- China’s fixed-asset investment recovers steadily in 2020 — China’s fixed-asset investment (FAI) steadily recovered in 2020, with the investment in the high-tech industry and private sector rising rapidly, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Monday.
- China’s passenger car sales expand in December 2020 — China’s passenger car sales continued to grow in December 2020 thanks to the steady recovery of the country’s vehicle market and industry, according to the China Passenger Car Association.
- China’s alcohol-making industry posts rising profits in first 11 months of 2020 — China’s major alcohol companies saw profits rise 8.6 percent year on year to 151.53 billion yuan (about 23.3 billion U.S. dollars) in the first 11 months of 2020, according to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
- China mulls strengthening regulation over rare earth industry — China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Friday started to solicit public opinion on a set of draft rules to further strengthen regulation over the rare earth industry.
- China invests big in civil aviation infrastructure over 2016-2020 — China has been enhancing its civil aviation infrastructure sector over the past five years, with big investment and significant progress achieved, according to the country’s civil aviation authorities.
- Xi’an sees rising China-Europe freight train service — Xi’an, capital of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, saw a surge in China-Europe freight train trips in 2020 despite the impact of COVID-19, local authorities told a press conference on Monday.
- China’s Jiangxi sees record foreign trade in 2020 — East China’s Jiangxi Province saw its foreign trade grew by 14.3 percent year on year to a record-high number of over 401 billion yuan (about 61.8 billion U.S. dollars) in 2020 despite COVID-19, according to a local press conference on Monday.
- StanChart chairman sees China as major force driving global recovery — China will be a “major force contributing to the global economic growth” in the post-COVID-19 era, Jose Vinals, group chairman of Standard Chartered PLC, said Monday.
- China’s Shandong sees foreign trade with B&R countries rise in 2020 — China’s Shandong Province saw its foreign trade with countries along the Belt and Road (B&R) rise 9.1 percent year on year to over 660.8 billion yuan (about 101.8 billion U.S. dollars) last year, local authorities said on Monday.
- Courier giant SF Holding reports 31 pct revenue growth in December — China’s express delivery giant SF Holding on Monday reported notable revenue growth in its core business in December 2020.
- Deliveries begin for Tesla’s China-made Model Y — U.S. electric carmaker Tesla Inc. on Monday began Shanghai deliveries of its built-in-China Model Y.
- China to become world’s largest IoT market in 2024: report — China will surpass the United States to become the world’s largest Internet of Things (IoT) market in 2024, according to an industrial report.
Other Publications
- Nikkei Asian Review: Tianqi Lithium cancels $2.5bn share sale after exchange objects — Shenzhen bourse questioned how purchase by chairman’s company would be financed.
- Nikkei Asian Review: China and Japan lag Europe in ‘green recovery’ stimulus — Study says Asia’s pandemic economic policies to negatively affect climate.
- Nikkei Asian Review: Former Ant execs’ startup draws new investors and bank partners — XTransfer CEO aims to build ‘PayPal for cross-border trade’.
- Economist: China’s economy zooms back to its pre-covid growth rate — Its success offers some useful lessons about how to confront a pandemic.
- The Diplomat: Chinese-Funded Railway to Link Former US Bases in the Philippines — But we should treat the announcement with caution, given that few promised Chinese infrastructure projects have yet eventuated.
- TechCrunch: Signal and Telegram are also growing in China – for now — As fears over WhatsApp’s privacy policies send millions of users in the West to Signal and Telegram, the two encrypted apps are also seeing a slight user uptick in China, where WeChat has long dominated and the government has a tight grip on online communication.
