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
- Russia, China Deepen Ties With Construction of Massive Polymer Plant — Construction began on one of the world’s largest polymer plants, a facility that will produce plastic components aimed at the Chinese market, in a display of its strengthening economic ties with Beijing.
- China Sours on Australian Wine as Trade Spat Spirals — China is investigating whether Australia is dumping cheap wine into its domestic market, deepening a diplomatic and trade row between the two countries that has worsened since the coronavirus pandemic.
- A Chinese Power Stock With a Mighty Tailwind — Ming Yang Smart Energy Group benefits from Chinese stimulus and a lack of baggage that weighs down many competitors.
- A Trade Deal With India Is a Foreign Policy Imperative — A predictable, low-tariff regime would reorient supply chains away from an inimical China.
- U.S. Tightens Restrictions on Huawei’s Access to Chips — The Commerce Department issued new rules restricting Huawei Technologies Co.’s access to foreign-made chips, further tightening U.S. curbs on the Chinese telecom company’s ability to obtain crucial components.
The Financial Times
- Asia chipmaker stocks dive after Huawei ‘death sentence’ — New US sanctions on Chinese group wipe billions of dollars off tech shares.
- Why China’s economic recovery from coronavirus is widening the wealth gap — A lack of support has left lower-income workers unable to spend even as richer households splash out.
- China’s share of global exports falls in supply chains rethink — Multinationals seek to reduce dependency as pandemic and US restrictions bite.
- Geely Auto slashes sales target as profits plunge — Ambitious Chinese owner of Volvo Cars hit by slow pace of pandemic recovery in home market.
- The decoupling of the US and China has only just begun — Business logic has been displaced by strategic rivalry.
- Chinese banks woo overseas asset managers — Moves follow last year’s decision to allow foreign managers majority stakes in joint ventures.
The New York Times
- She Was a Communist Party Insider in China. Then She Denounced Xi. — “At last I’ve regained my freedom,” Cai Xia, a fierce government critic, said after her expulsion from the party whose officials she once taught.
- Ex-C.I.A. Officer Is Accused of Spying for China — The arrest of a 67-year-old Hawaii resident is the latest case involving former intelligence officers charged with providing classified documents to Beijing.
- U.S. Tries to Bolster Taiwan’s Status, Short of Recognizing Sovereignty — President Trump prefers a robust relationship with authoritarian China to one with democratic Taiwan. But other American officials aim to strengthen U.S.-Taiwan ties.
Caixin
- Exclusive: China Railway Sparks Investor Ire Over Attempt to Shut Down Fund — Insurance companies are opposing efforts to close the company because they don’t want to lose a high-interest income stream.
- General Motors Joint Venture Brings Street Cred to China’s ‘Mini Cars’ — SGMW sells 15,000 electric-powered Mini EVs in first 20 days, even as such miniature vehicles remain in regulatory gray zone.
- Chinese Cancer Treatment Developer JW Therapeutics Plans HK IPO — Joint venture of China’s WuXi AppTec and America’s Juno Therapeutics may seek $200 million to $300 million to fund promising CAR T-cell therapies.
- Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun Makes $30 Million in Sales in Livestreaming Debut — Lei Jun has become the latest Chinese tech leader to cash in on live broadcasting to enhance his company’s sales and brand awareness.
- Tencent Takes Minority Stake in French Game Maker Voodoo — Chinese tech giant Tencent has taken a minority stake in Paris-based video game maker Voodoo, the French company said in a LinkedIn post on August 17.
South China Morning Post
- China food security: country faces ‘grain supply gap of 130 million tonnes by 2025’ as rural workforce dwindles — China will face a domestic grain supply gap of about 130 million tonnes by the end of 2025, pointing to growing reliance on imports to feed the world’s most populous country, according to a new report from a government think tank.
- Hongkongers eye deals in Greater Bay Area city Zhongshan, turn to the internet to buy property — Property investors from Hong Kong are not letting coronavirus social distancing measures and closed borders get in the way of a promising deal in the Greater Bay Area development zone.
- Coronavirus: China’s State Council urges local authorities to speed up fiscal support for small firms — China’s State Council has reiterated the urgent need to channel fiscal relief and bank credit to small businesses, as Beijing continues to nurse its fragile economy back to health after the coronavirus shock.
- Stamp duty gives Hong Kong’s income a boost, to offset impact of US-China tensions, civil unrest and coronavirus — Hong Kong’s income has grown more than expected this year because of a strong financial market, despite the impact of the US-China trade war, civil unrest, the coronavirus pandemic, and US sanctions, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on Tuesday.
- Tencent’s insurance platform WeSure slapped with fine for misleading marketing — Chinese regulators have slapped Tencent WeSure Insurance with a 120,000 yuan (US$17,293) fine for running a misleading marketing campaign, amid a surge in online health care coverage in the country because of the coronavirus pandemic.
- Huawei faces ‘impossible’ challenge after latest US tech sanctions, say analysts — After the US further tightened restrictions on Huawei Technologies’ access to semiconductors on Monday, analysts had only one word to describe the situation faced by China’s telecoms champion: Impossible.
- China’s rare earth export plunge caused by coronavirus, not Beijing agenda, industry group says — A plunge in China’s rare earth exports last month has fanned speculation over whether Beijing has been curbing overseas shipments of the raw materials to inflict pain on its trade partners, but an industry association official says the decline in such exports is more of a result of coronavirus shock than a deliberate effort to cut off supplies.
- Drone maker DJI denies report it is set to make sweeping job cuts amid rising tech tensions — Chinese drone maker DJI has denied a news report that it is planning sweeping job cuts amid headwinds from Covid-19 and mounting tech tensions between China and the US.
- Chinese Communist Party aims to turn Beijing into an e-sports hub, backed by subsidy schemes — China’s capital, Beijing, is expected to become the country’s new e-sports hub under an ambitious initiative that will provide major subsidies to teams, arenas and video games that promote local culture.
- Hong Kong’s police chief shifted his mortgage to Bank of China (Hong Kong) from HSBC just days ahead of US sanctions — Hong Kong’s police chief, among 11 officials sanctioned by the United States government over China’s national security law for the city, shifted his mortgage from HSBC to Bank of China (Hong Kong) days before the US enacted its policy, according to public records.
Bloomberg
- Gold Rebounds Above $2,000 Amid Escalating U.S.-China Tensions — Gold climbed back above $2,000 an ounce as renewed tensions between the U.S. and China boosted demand for haven assets, and the dollar weakened.
- Supply Chains Latest: Leaving China in Search of Other Suppliers — Even before the coronavirus pandemic caused massive disruptions for global supply chains, Becky Cannon was trying to diversify her business. Caught in the middle of the U.S.-China tariff war, the small-business owner started exploring possible alternatives to the Chinese suppliers she’s worked with for years.
- Trump Pledges Tax Credits, Tariffs to Redirect Jobs From China — President Donald Trump said he’ll punish American companies that move jobs abroad and reward firms with tax breaks for shifting work from China to the U.S., proposals aimed at hastening the decoupling of the world’s largest economies.
- Solar’s Pricey Summer May Get Worse as Flooding Shuts Plant — Tongwei Co. halted output at a polysilicon factory in southwest China because of flooding, the latest blow to the solar supply chain that has seen rare cost increases this summer due to disruptions.
- Zoom Opens New Data Center, Plans to Add More Jobs in Singapore — Zoom Video Communications Inc., the popular conferencing app facing scrutiny over whether it transmits data to China, has opened a data center in Singapore, diversifying its network and expanding into Southeast Asia for the first time.
- Tesla Clashes With China E-Commerce Site Over Model 3 Promotion — Tesla Inc. has found itself entangled in an escalating dispute with Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo Inc., which ran a promotion for Model 3 sedans that the U.S. carmaker says broke its policies.
- China Doesn’t Need Another 125,000 Miles of High-Speed Rail — For all the patriotism that comes with ambitions to build more high-speed rail, it’s a bad idea.
- Deepening Huawei Curbs Send Asian Chipmakers Plunging — Taiwan’s MediaTek Inc. led a slump among major chipmakers after the Trump administration tightened restrictions on Huawei Technologies Co., expanding a campaign to cripple China’s largest tech corporation.
- Hong Kong’s Leader Has Credit Card Trouble After U.S. Sanctions — Hong Kong’s leader said she’s having trouble using her credit cards after the U.S. imposed sanctions targeting Chinese officials and their allies in the city.
- JD.com Sales Beat, Scores $830 Million Hillhouse Investment — JD.com Inc. unveiled better-than-expected revenue and a major investment from Hillhouse Capital, after China’s second-biggest e-commerce firm rode a bounce-back in spending across its online malls
Reuters
- Reprieve for molybdenum prices from China’s import surge — An upsurge in Chinese demand and imports of minor metal molybdenum have revitalized prices of the stainless steel ingredient, but a reversal is expected as local production ramps up after disruptions.
- Taiwan-based Apple supplier Catcher to sell two divisions to China’s Lens for $1.4 billion — Taiwan-based Catcher Technology , a supplier to Apple Inc , has agreed to sell two units from its Lyra International division in China to Hunan-based Lens Technology Co for $1.43 billion, a company filing showed.
- BHP falls short of expected profit, warns of slowing growth outside China — BHP Group on Tuesday said it expects most major world economies except China to bear the brunt of a coronavirus-led downturn this year, reporting a 4% drop in annual profit that missed analysts’ estimates.
- Chief accountant of China’s agri giant COFCO is under investigation: graft watchdog — The chief accountant of Chinese state grain trader COFCO is under investigation, the country’s graft watchdog said in a statement on Tuesday.
- S&P warns of rising real rates risk to China’s recovery — Rating agency S&P Global warned on Tuesday that China’s economic recovery from the novel coronavirus pandemic could be at risk as a combination of rising interest rates and slowing inflation pushes real rates higher.
- MSCI launches climate change indexes for China stocks — MSCI published two climate change indexes on Tuesday that allow investors in China stocks to lean toward companies with lower carbon emissions.
- China flood forces Tongwei to cut polysilicon capacity by a quarter — Tongwei Group, a Chinese feedstock and solar raw material supplier, is forced to shut down a quarter of its polycrystalline silicon, or polysilicon, capacity due to an unusually severe flood in southeastern China.
- Column: China slows crude oil storage flows slightly in July – Russell — China’s massive build-up of crude oil inventories this year slowed somewhat in July, but remained elevated by historical standards as imports stayed near record levels.
- Australia appeals China’s barley import tariff as trade tensions worsen — Australia has appealed China’s prohibitive tariff on barley shipments from the world’s third-biggest exporter of the grain, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters, as Australian farmers scramble to find alternative markets.
- China’s Lufax ties up with Thai bank for local online wealth management — Lufax, one of China’s largest online wealth management platforms backed by Ping An Insurance Group , said its unit has formed an alliance with Kasikornbank to set up an online wealth management platform in Thailand.
- China’s Ant Group plans consumer finance firm in growth push ahead of IPO — Ant Group, Alibaba’s fintech arm and China’s dominant mobile payments company, plans to set up a consumer finance firm in the southwestern city of Chongqing, expanding its presence in the fast-growing domestic business, two sources told Reuters.
- China-backed AIIB approves $100 million loan to Uzbekistan to fight COVID-19 — Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) said on Tuesday it would lend $100 million to Uzbekistan to help the country deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and future public health disasters.
- Macau VIP casino industry out of luck as China cracks down on capital flows — China’s move to stamp out online gambling to help contain capital outflows is hitting liquidity in Macau’s VIP segment, at a time when the world’s No. 1 gambling hub is hobbled by slowing economic growth, Sino-U.S. tensions and coronavirus lockdowns.
Xinhua
- East China’s Anhui posts 10.9 pct increase in foreign trade in Jan.-July — Foreign trade of east China’s Anhui Province rose 10.9 percent to 296.25 billion yuan (about 42.62 billion U.S. dollars) in the first seven months of this year, customs data showed.
- China adds 400 new PPP projects in January-July — China saw 400 new public-private partnership (PPP) projects registered in the first seven months of the year, according to the country’s top economic planner.
- Market exchange rates in China — Aug. 18 — The following are the central parity rates of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the yuan, against 24 major currencies announced on Tuesday by the China Foreign Exchange Trade System:
Other Publications
- Forbes: Evidence Mounts Of U.S. Tech Skirting Huawei Sanctions — U.S. tech firms are not supposed to be selling them computer hardware to build out its 5G infrastructure. Some might be getting around the rules. Huawei is getting the materials it needs from somewhere.
- Nikkei Asian Review: Silk Road Redux: Greece courts China money in crisis revival bid — Surface love fest between ancient cultures masks economic and geopolitical aims
- Nikkei Asian Review: US-Australia bid for ‘China free’ rare earth faces challenges — The U.S. and Australia have launched an ambitious project to create a supply chain for rare-earth metals that does not involve China, an effort that has drawn strong market interest but could face cost obstacles.
- Foreign Policy: China Is Getting Mired in the Middle East — By striking a major partnership with Tehran, Beijing risks not only angering other regional partners but also getting entangled in complicated security and political issues.