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
- China Deploys Covid-19 Vaccine to Build Influence, With U.S. on Sidelines — Beijing is assembling a chain of airplanes, warehouses and trucks to deliver refrigerated doses to the developing world.
- Why Beijing Loves Biden and Paris — By the Editorial Board. The U.S. rejoins a climate pact that gives China a free carbon ride.
- Tesla Quality Issues Threaten Its Dominance in China EV Market (Video) — Chinese regulators are taking a close look at Tesla operations after recent videos on social media appear to show a Model 3 battery fire and malfunctioning vehicles. WSJ explains how possible quality issues with Tesla cars could threaten the EV-maker’s meteoric rise.
- China’s Online-Lending Curbs to Hit Big Tech Firms and Regional Banks — Starting in 2022, internet-lending platforms will have to fund at least 30% of every loan they make jointly with commercial lenders.
The Financial Times
- Chinese stocks drop 3% in retreat from record highs — Pullback offers early hint that support for asset prices may start to fall away.
- China urges Biden to lift sanctions and stop meddling — Foreign minister’s remarks follow frosty exchanges in first weeks of US administration.
- Homeowners reject Beijing’s candidates for powerful local associations — Some residents refuse to vote after being pressured to back government’s preferred nominees.
- UK to call for UN probe of Uighur camps in China’s Xinjiang province — Violations happening on ‘industrial scale’, foreign secretary will tell human rights council.
- China’s state broadcaster applies to France for right to air in Europe — CGTN was stripped of its licence by UK regulator Ofcom earlier this month.
- China tightens online lending rules in fresh blow to Ma’s Ant Group — Tech platforms will be forced to provide capital for 30% of the loans they offer in partnership with banks.
- Pro-Beijing reforms threaten ‘end’ of HK’s legal system, top lawyer warns — New Bar Association head draws fierce criticism for defending judicial independence.
- UK academics struggle with stricter security on China partnerships — Universities have been accused of generating research that may benefit Beijing’s military.
The New York Times
- China Is Preparing for Another Olympics in Beijing, Like It or Not — With the Winter Games less than a year away, a powerful and confident China is promising retaliation if any country boycotts the event over human rights.
- China-India Border Clash Last Year Left 4 Dead, Beijing Acknowledges — It was the first explicit admission by the People’s Liberation Army that it had lost soldiers in the June brawl. India says 20 of its troops were killed.
Caixin
- China May Ease Controls on Citizens’ Offshore Investments — Ye Haisheng of foreign exchange administration outlines plans for significant new steps in China’s push for a two-way opening of capital markets.
- China’s Private Steelmakers Are Now More Profitable Than State-Run Peers — Privately owned mills outperform by reining in production and sourcing cheaper raw materials as cumbersome management and controls weigh on SOEs.
- New Frontier Prepares for China IPO After New York Delisting — Chinese hospital and medical clinic operator valued at $1.72 billion joins parade of companies fleeing U.S. markets amid rising tensions.
- Geely and Concordium Team Up to Tap Blockchain Opportunities in China — Volvo owner Geely and Switzerland-based Concordium have signed a deal to establish a joint venture that will provide China-based customers with blockchain technology that can be used to build new business models and create decentralized applications.
South China Morning Post
- China signals real financial opening up, but will it follow through? — A Chinese foreign exchange official said on Friday that Beijing will “study” a plan to allow all mainland residents to invest in offshore securities and insurance policies up to an annual limit of US$50,000.
- How JD.com founder Richard Liu rebounded from a Minneapolis sex scandal to achieve a hat-trick of IPOs in Hong Kong — Richard Liu Qiangdong, the billionaire founder of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.
- China’s carbon neutral push gathers pace as coal-fired power plants drop below 50 per cent for first time — China’s coal-fired power plants fell to less than 50 per cent of its total power generation mix for the first time last year, while separately, power generated from non-fossil fuels rose to make up more than a third of the country’s power output, according to a new report.
Bloomberg
- Three Gorges to Buy Billionaires’ Spanish Renewable Portfolio — China Three Gorges Corp. agreed to buy Spanish renewable assets from a group of billionaires, as the Chinese energy giant seeks to double down on the southern European country.
- Goodyear Agrees to Buy Cooper Tire for About $2.8 Billion — Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. agreed to buy Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. for about $2.8 billion, strengthening its position as No. 1 in the U.S. market and almost doubling its presence in China, where auto sales are surging again.
- Chinese Official Signals Overhaul of Hong Kong’s Election System — China faces a “critical and urgent” task to overhaul Hong Kong’s electoral system, Beijing’s top official for the city said, in the latest sign that authorities were mulling major changes in the coming weeks.
- Sinopec Throws Itself Into Hydrogen for China’s Green Car Goals — Sinopec plans to boost its hydrogen refueling network as the state-owned oil giant tries to carve out a role in China’s transition to cleaner energy.
Reuters
- Schroders to form China wealth management venture with BOCOM — Schroders said on Monday it had received Chinese regulatory permission to form a majority-owned wealth management venture with a unit of Bank of Communications (BOCOM), the country’s fifth biggest lender.
- Chinese spyware code was copied from America’s NSA: researchers — Chinese spies used code first developed by the U.S. National Security Agency to support their hacking operations, Israeli researchers said on Monday, another indication of how malicious software developed by governments can boomerang against their creators.
- Exclusive: India to clear 45 investments from China, likely to include Great Wall, SAIC – sources — India is set to clear 45 investment proposals from China, which are likely to include those from Great Wall Motor and SAIC Motor Corp, government and industry sources told Reuters, as military tensions between the two countries ease at the disputed border.
- Chinese state fund invests in gene firm BGI — The Chinese government has made an investment in BGI Genomics Co, a listed Chinese company that has supplied millions of COVID-19 tests globally as the gene firm seeks to fund exponential growth driven by the pandemic.
- FTSE Russell to include 11 stocks from China’s STAR Market in global benchmarks — Index provider FTSE Russell will add 11 stocks from China’s STAR Market to its global benchmarks, according to a post on its website from Friday.
- U.S. alleges Stanford researcher concealed connection to Chinese army — A federal grand jury has indicted a Stanford University medical researcher for allegedly concealing and lying about her membership of the Chinese military.
- U.S. lawmakers set resolution condemning China over Hong Kong rights — Members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a bipartisan resolution on Friday condemning actions by the Chinese government and local authorities in Hong Kong that they said violated rights and freedoms in the city.
Other Publications
- The Diplomat: A Trust Deficit Is Hindering Hong Kong’s COVID-19 Response — In the wake of the national security law, public trust in the government has reached new lows. That is inevitably impacting Hong Kong’s pandemic response.
- Nikkei Asian Review: India seeks economic energy in Russian Far East, countering China — New Delhi hungry for region’s resources and wary of tighter Moscow-Beijing ties.
- AP News: Chinese loans to Latin America plunge as virus strains ties — It seemed like a match made in finance heaven. In 2010, China, its economy roaring and state companies looking to expand globally, set its eyes on Latin America, a region starved of capital but rich in natural resources the Asian giant lacked. The result: a record $35 billion in state-to-state loans that year.
