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
- Jack Ma’s Ant Plans Major Revamp in Response to Chinese Pressure — Fintech giant plans to become a financial holding company overseen by China’s central bank.
- Commerce Nominee Pledges Tough China Stance, but Mum on Huawei Blacklist — At Senate hearing, Gov. Gina Raimondo wouldn’t commit to enforcing Trump administration’s ban on Chinese telecom giant.
- Starbucks Sales Slide But Show Signs of Recovery in China — Coffee giant also says operating chief Roz Brewer will leave to lead another publicly traded company.
- HSBC CEO Defends Stance on Hong Kong — Noel Quinn says the bank hadn’t decided as a policy to freeze accounts of Hong Kong activists.
The Financial Times
- Sinopharm/China buyouts: healthy alternative — Covid vaccine maker wants to take China TCM private; the timing is right.
- TikTok to shed hundreds of India workers after national security ban — Country was previously China-owned video app’s biggest international market with 200m users.
- How China is tackling fintech risk and regulation — The rules need to emphasise the substance instead of the form of a company.
- Ant plans sale of prized US asset as user data scrutiny intensifies — Biometric security firm EyeVerify ‘targeted’ as Chinese fintech raises capital after halted IPO.
- The blunt force of China’s mobilisation campaigns — Beijing relies on the extraordinary deployment of people and resources to achieve some of its aims.
The New York Times
- A Scientist Is Arrested, and Academics Push Back — Gang Chen, an M.I.T. professor, faces federal charges of hiding affiliations with China. His colleagues, and M.I.T., are publicly challenging the allegations.
Caixin
- Executive at China’s Biggest Policy Bank Fired on Suspicion of Corruption — Wang Xuefeng was found to have taken bribes in exchange for facilitating financing deals, watchdog says.
- China Mobile to Build Out Rural-Focused 5G Network With New Telco — Leading wireless carrier signs deal to develop service based on China Broadcast Network’s 700MHz frequency as CBN moves closer to becoming fourth major mobile telco.
- Baidu Juices Up Intelligent Driving Tie-Up With BlackBerry — Baidu has expanded its partnership with Canadian security software supplier and former smartphone pioneer BlackBerry. The agreement will enable Baidu’s mapping tools to be installed in more internet-connected and autonomous vehicles in China, as the Chinese search giant explores ways to monetize its Apollo self-driving platform in an effort to diversify its revenue sources.
South China Morning Post
- HNA’s key decision-making body leaves out Chen Feng’s name, signalling founder’s exit from China’s biggest asset buyer — Chen Feng, the founder of China’s largest private airline, has been excluded from the key decision-making body of the HNA Group, in a dramatic development that signals his loss of control of one of the country’s largest conglomerates over five short years.
- Kuaishou IPO: how newest millennial billionaires built the biggest rival to China’s TikTok — Kuaishou co-founders Su Hua and Cheng Yixiao are set to become two of China’s richest millennials following a US$5 billion initial public offering of their video-sharing app in Hong Kong, joining the ranks of young entrepreneurs who have gained massive wealth from China’s decades-long technology boom.
- Ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing close to raising US$1.5 billion for on-demand trucking unit — Ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing Technology Co is close to finalising a US$1.5 billion round of funding for its on-demand trucking unit from investors including Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, surpassing its fundraising target as investors count on a Chinese economic recovery to fuel shipping.
Bloomberg
- China’s Insatiable Corn Demand Paves Way for Even Higher Prices — Corn’s surge to a seven-year high on the back on unrelenting Chinese demand looks like it could have a lot further to go.
- Frozen Fish Pileup in China Threatens Global Supply Chains — A huge pile up of fish cargoes at a Chinese port risks impacting shipments of frozen food across the country and beyond.
- Steel Price Rally Seen Under Threat on Global Supply Revival — The surge in global steel prices may be under threat as output increases across the world and top producer China steps up exports, according to India’s biggest steelmaker by market value.
Reuters
- Philippines cancels $10 billion airport plan with Chinese-led group — A Philippine province has cancelled a decision to award $10 billion airport project to a consortium led by a Chinese state firm, dealing a blow to President Rodrigo Duterte’s infrastructure ambitions and to his policy shift towards Beijing.
- Exclusive: Sinopharm-led consortium plans $3.3 billion take-private of HK-listed China TCM – sources — A consortium led by state-owned pharma giant Sinopharm plans to take private China Traditional Chinese Medicine Holdings in a deal that would value the firm at at least $3.3 billion, said two people with direct knowledge of the matter.
- China’s Ant Group plans sale of U.S.-based EyeVerify: FT — China’s Ant Group Co Ltd is planning to sell U.S.-based biometric security firm EyeVerify amid growing tensions between Beijing and Washington over China’s technology companies and tightening scrutiny over U.S. data, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
- Analysis: Sovereign wealth, public pension giants caught up in U.S.-China tech fight — Some of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth funds and public pension funds are getting caught in the escalating tensions over technology between the United States and China, a Reuters analysis of their filings data and public disclosures show.
Other Publications
- Axios: Former Google CEO and others call for U.S.-China tech “bifurcation” — A new set of proposals by a group of influential D.C. insiders and tech industry practitioners calling for a degree of “bifurcation” in the U.S. and Chinese tech sectors is circulating in the Biden administration.
- POLITICO: Biden’s biggest clean-energy partner: China — The U.S path to clean energy goes straight through China.
- Rhodium Group: US-China Financial Investment: Current Scope and Future Potential — This report, by Rhodium Group for the National Committee on US-China Relations (NCUSCR), clarifies the scope and patterns of two-way financial investment in equity and debt securities and discusses key policy questions on both sides.