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.
The Wall Street Journal
- Alibaba Switches Lazada CEO Again in Tough E-Commerce Market — The Chinese technology giant replaced the chief executive of its Southeast Asia e-commerce unit for the third time in just over two years, as it continues to struggle to get its international business on track.
- Chinese Cellphones Face Off Against Indian Nationalism — Chinese consumer electronics have been doing well in India in recent years. They should be able to weather the geopolitical tensions between the two countries, too.
- White House Considers Broad Federal Intervention to Secure 5G Future — The Trump administration has discussed a range of strategies to counter Huawei’s growth and put more American muscle into the competition against the Chinese telecom giant, including by prodding large U.S. technology companies to acquire Ericsson or Nokia.
- Food Exporters Resist China’s New Coronavirus Restrictions — As China tries to stave off a resurgence of Covid-19, the customs authority requested that companies sending food products to the country sign documents declaring that their food hasn’t been contaminated by the virus.
- Japan Plans National Champion to Challenge Huawei — Japan’s top telecommunications company is taking a $600 million stake in a leading telecoms hardware maker, seeking to build a national champion that can take business from China’s Huawei Technologies Co.
The Financial Times
- Pakistan seeks relief from China over Belt and Road — Islamabad wants to renegotiate repayment after claiming costs of power plants were inflated
- Inside China’s race to beat poverty — Xi Jinping has vowed to eradicate extreme rural deprivation by the end of 2020. Will he meet his target?
- The battle to be Asia’s premier financial centre — Regional rivals are poised to take advantage of Hong Kong’s clash with Beijing
South China Morning Post
- Does Covid-19 spread through food? The evidence says ‘highly unlikely’ — Since a new outbreak of Covid-19 on June 11 was linked to a fresh food market in Beijing, thousands of samples of imported and domestic seafood, meat and vegetables in China have been tested for the virus. So far, all have been negative.
- China debt market feeling the heat in June with two big defaults and a government order to reduce risk — A bankruptcy by a heavily indebted state enterprise backed by a provincial government, a large trust investment firm being unable to pay its investors and an order to all state firms in a southwestern province to restructure their debts are all recent incidents that have further highlighted the growing stress in China’s debt market.
- Shenzhen leads the way as China turns to property investment frenzy to boost growth — Property investment has surged across cities in China, especially across the border from Hong Kong in Shenzhen, even though the broad economy is still struggling amid coronavirus pandemic, a trend that runs against Beijing’s intention of channelling more funds into farms and factories instead of office towers.
- A rare 999-year leasehold in world’s costliest city makes US government one of Hong Kong’s biggest foreign real estate owners — In April 1999, less than two years after Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty, an unusual real estate deal was signed between the city’s administration under then Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa and the US government.
- China’s Go West plan fails to capture imagination of foreign firms suffering from ‘regional development plan fatigue’ — China’s latest blueprint to stimulate its western provincial economies has been met with a collective shrug of the shoulder from foreign firms, many of which are suffering from “regional development plan fatigue”.
- Hong Kong Tourism Board chief brushes aside fears national security law will scare off foreign visitors — The impending national security law for Hong Kong will not scare off overseas visitors, says the city’s tourism promotions chief, who is hopeful that a new domestic trips scheme will boost local consumption and help the sector ride out a coronavirus-related slump.
Bloomberg
- Tencent Tests Livestreaming Rival to Amazon’s Twitch in the U.S. — Tencent Holdings Ltd. is rolling out a live-streaming service similar to Amazon.com Inc.’s Twitch in the U.S., making a rare foray into American social media.
- U.S. Gains Ground in Effort to Freeze Huawei Out of 5G — The U.S. campaign to hamstring China’s Huawei Technologies Co. is gaining fresh impetus as the Trump administration chokes off supplies of vital microchips and Beijing causes dismay on both sides of the Atlantic with its stance on Hong Kong and the coronavirus.
- Chinese Firms Are Pricing Their U.S. IPOs Above-Range: ECM Watch — Investors seem to be brushing off the headwinds for Chinese companies looking to list in the U.S.
- One Iconic Tower Shows the Pain in Hong Kong’s Office Market — Hong Kong’s distinctive Lippo Centre — twin glass-fronted octagonal towers whose facade some say resembles koala bears climbing a tree — has long been a gauge for the health of the world’s most expensive office market.
- Three Accused in China Secrets Theft Put on U.S. Wanted List — The U.S. won arrest warrants for the former president of a China state-owned chipmaker and two other engineers charged with stealing secrets from Idaho-based Micron Technology Inc.The effort to apprehend the three men is notable because they were charged in 2018 in the first case filed under the Trump administration’s “China Initiative” targeting trade-secret theft, hacking and economic espionage.
Reuters
- Hapag-Lloyd to halt waste shipments to China — German container shipping line Hapag-Lloyd said it had notified customers it will stop accepting cargoes of solid waste, including scrap metal, bound for China that arrive from Sept. 1 onwards to comply with new legislation.
- Senate backs bill to punish China over Hong Kong — The U.S. Senate passed legislation on Thursday that would impose mandatory sanctions on people or companies that back efforts by China to restrict Hong Kong’s autonomy, pushing back against Beijing’s new security law for the city.
- India’s auto and pharma sectors not ready to wean off China — Days after a border clash with China this month in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed, New Delhi told firms to find ways to cut imports from China. But two big industries, automobiles and pharmaceuticals, say this is easier said than done.
- Britain should side with U.S. over Huawei, former PM Blair says — Britain will ultimately have to side with the United States in a decision on allowing China’s Huawei Technologies a role in its 5G network, former Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Thursday.
Xinhua
- Huawei to build optoelectronics R&D, manufacturing center in UK — Chinese technology firm Huawei announced Thursday that it will build a state-of-the-art center in Cambridge, Britain, which will focus on the research, development, and manufacturing of optical devices and modules.
- China sees current account deficit in Q1 — China saw a current account deficit in the first quarter of this year amid disruptions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Other Publications
- WIRED: The US-China Battle Over the Internet Goes Under the Sea — The DOJ’s opposition to Facebook and Google’s 8,000-mile cable to Hong Kong highlights how physical infrastructure is as contentious as the virtual world.
- Forbes: Japan’s Building Aircraft Carriers, China’s Thinking About Sinking Them — The Japanese navy’s first aircraft carrier in 75 years is almost ready to deploy. The Chinese military has already considered how it might sink the Japanese carriers. Which is not to say it would succeed.
- Science Magazine: Mars mission would put China among space leaders — NASA’s Perseverance rover may have company on the Red Planet. China aims to leap to the front ranks in planetary exploration with an ambitious Mars mission, its first independent bid to reach the planet. Tianwen-1—“quest for heavenly truth”—consists of not only an orbiter, but also a lander and a rover, a trifecta no other nation has accomplished on its first Mars bid.
- Nikkei Asian Review: China’s Trip.com pours $500m into tourism recovery fund — China’s Trip.com Group has created a $500 million fund to help airlines, hotels and other partners rebound from the coronavirus pandemic, as the online travel group aims to spur an international tourism revival to echo signs of recovery in its home market.
- The Economist: To China’s rulers, the cupidity of officials is a political crisis — Corruption is certainly bad, but it once emboldened Chinese power-holders to take useful risks.