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
- Top U.S., China Officials to Meet Next Week in Alaska on Range of Issues — Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan to discuss pandemic, climate change, Hong Kong and more with Chinese counterparts.
- China All but Ends Hong Kong Democracy With ‘Patriots Only’ Rule — National assembly backs barring candidates for city’s legislature not endorsed by Beijing.
- Facebook Drops Plan to Run Fiber Cable to Hong Kong Amid U.S. Pressure — China-California link is latest in a string of cables project derailed by pressure from U.S. national-security officials.
- Hong Kong’s Illusionist — By the Editorial Board. Financial Secretary Paul Chan invokes a system that no longer exists.
The Financial Times
- To maintain tech supremacy the US must avoid ‘military-civil fusion’ — The strategic threat from China is real but American tech giants do not deserve special treatment.
- China passes Hong Kong election law despite US warning — Legislation will stifle democracy in the city and stoke tensions between Washington and Beijing.
- Brussels seeks to win round critics of EU-China deal — Detail of agreement due to be published in face of fierce opposition from rights groups with ratification not assured.
- China turns its back on Bangladesh BRI coal projects — Beijing’s decision a rare signal of reluctance to fund polluting projects in Belt and Road Initiative.
- Top US and China envoys to meet in Alaska next week — Gathering of senior diplomats from Beijing and Washington is the first under Biden.
- UK’s policy towards China is riddled with contradictions — New global strategy exposes the conflict in Boris Johnson’s approach to Beijing.
- Taiwan accuses Bitmain of poaching its top chip engineers — Taipei investigates new front in Chinese efforts to snare semiconductor R&D expertise.
The New York Times
- How China Plans to Control Hong Kong’s Elections and Elevate ‘Patriots’ — New rules imposed by Beijing will make it nearly impossible for democracy advocates in the territory to run for chief executive or the legislature.
- Blinken Will Meet Chinese Officials After Asia Tour Next Week — In his first foreign trip, the secretary of state will visit Japan and South Korea before the first in-person diplomatic encounter between the United States and China in several months.
Caixin
- Road to Mainland Listing Is Clear for China Telecom, Source Says — Company has repeatedly attempted to list at home, the source close to watchdogs said, but regulators were concerned about its huge size.
- Guotai Junan Securities Gets OK to Sell $7.7 Billion of Bonds Over 2 Years — Brokerage joins a wave of Chinese securities companies tapping the bond market after profits boomed in 2020 and appear likely to do so again this year.
- China’s Iron Ore Futures Sag on Steel Curbs, Carbon-Cutting Worries — The most actively traded contract fell 11.4% from March 4 to March 10, before regaining some ground on Thursday.
- Huawei’s Woes in Europe Grow as Balkan Telecom Giant Mulls Removing Its Gear — United Group has become the latest European telecoms company to consider completely or partly removing Huawei’s equipment from its network, deepening the Chinese tech giant’s woes in Europe where Washington is pressing more allies to take similar actions.
South China Morning Post
- China ‘two sessions’ 2021: tightened regulation of ‘chaotic’ K-12 off-campus education market may spoil Big Tech’s expansion plans — China’s US$110 billion K-12 off-campus education market, which has struggled during the coronavirus pandemic, is now bracing for a regulatory storm amid comments expressed by the country’s leaders, lawmakers and advisers in the “two sessions”, the country’s biggest annual political gathering.
- China recommits to nuclear energy, 10 years after Fukushima — When Kazue Suzuki went to Namie, a town about 20km north of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, eight years after the 2011 accident, she saw wild boar roaming freely in the abandoned homes.
- China’s coal imports from Russia may increase as supply from Australia ‘expected to decline’ — Russia is aiming to supply more coal to the world’s biggest energy consumer, as Beijing is also seeking to diversify China’s coal supply away from Australia amid ongoing tensions with Canberra, according to analysts.
Bloomberg
- Singapore Developer Spats With China Unit After Bond Lapse — An escalating feud between Singapore’s richest property family and its troubled Chinese unit is underscoring the challenges for foreign companies making acquisitions in the world’s second-largest economy.
- Chinese Stocks Cap Worst NPC Loss Since 2009 Despite Late Rally — A surge in Chinese stocks on the last day of the National People’s Congress failed to prevent them from posting their worst performance during the event since 2009.
- Geely’s Lynk & Co. Sets Sights on U.S. for Car Sharing Concept — Lynk & Co. is eyeing an expansion of its novel approach of vehicle ownership and car sharing to the U.S. as the brand backed by Volvo Cars and China’s Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. prepares to deliver its first vehicles in Europe.
- Cheap Electric Vehicles in China Bring Green Transportation to the Masses — No-frills models bring green transportation to the masses.
- TikTok Prompts EU Watchdog’s Warning on Data Being Sent to China — TikTok, the Chinese-owned video-sharing app, may be sending some European Union user data to China, its main data-protection watchdog in the EU warned.
- Ex-CLSA Banker Accuses Firm of Wrongdoing on Chinese Bond Deal — A former CLSA Ltd. managing director has accused the firm of “blatant” misbehavior in its role as bond underwriter for CEFC China Energy Co., a once high-flying oil conglomerate that plunged into bankruptcy last year.
Reuters
- Norway wealth fund to probe whether firms could be using forced labour from China’s Xinjiang — Norway’s $1.3 trillion wealth fund will probe whether companies it is invested in may be using the labour of ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims linked to China’s internment camps in farwestern Xinjiang, the head of the fund’s ethics watchdog said.
- India likely to block China’s Huawei over security fears: officials — India is likely to block its mobile carriers from using telecom equipment made by China’s Huawei, two government officials said, under procurement rules due to come into force in June.
- China semiconductor trade association establishes work group with U.S. counterpart — The Chinese Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA), a major trade association for China’s chip industry, will establish a working group with its U.S-based counterpart, the organisation announced on Thursday.
- China mulls higher bar for tech-focused STAR board candidates – source — China’s securities regulator is mulling a higher bar for initial public offerings (IPO) on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-style STAR Market, seeking to deter a wave of applicants with little involvement in the technology sector, said a person familiar with the matter.
- China approves $1.5 billion currency swap with Sri Lanka — China has approved a 10 billion yuan ($1.54 billion) currency swap with Sri Lanka, a government spokesman in Colombo said on Wednesday, giving some respite from concerns about public finances.
Other Publications
- Nikkei Asian Review: Foxconn set to make iPhone 12 in India, shifting from China — Tamil Nadu plant expected to take as much as 10% of Chinese production.
- Nikkei Asian Review: Quad tightens rare-earth cooperation to counter China — Japan, India, Australia and US to collaborate in tech, funding and rule-making.
- Economist: “Hi, Mom” is China’s latest mega-hit — Compared with Hollywood, China’s film industry is in rude health.
- Washington Post: President Biden’s second big bill may be China package pushed by top Senate Democrat — With fate of Biden infrastructure package unclear, Schumer pushes bill to curb China’s influence.
- Foreign Affairs: Vaccine Diplomacy Is Paying Off for China — Beijing Hasn’t Won the Soft-Power Stakes, but It Has an Early Lead.
- Foreign Policy: America Will Only Win When China’s Regime Fails — There are two possible outcomes of U.S.-China competition—but Washington should prepare for the more turbulent one.
- Foreign Policy: The Shrinking Chinese State — A look at Beijing’s spending suggests that Western fears of its influence may be misdirected.
- POLITICO: A tough-on-China GOP is split on whether to boycott the China Olympics — Some Republicans want to pull out, but others say there are better ways to highlight Beijing’s human rights abuses.
- The Diplomat: The Challenging Results of China’s New Anti-Poverty Campaign — It’s not as simple as some critics might have you believe.
