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
- U.S. and Its Allies Sanction China Over Treatment of Uyghurs in a Collective Action — Move by U.S., Canada, U.K. and EU is type of joint action sought by Biden administration; it draws retaliation from Beijing.
- Elon Musk’s China Charm Offensive Rolls On With Praise for Its Climate Plans — CEO’s interview with state television comes after he reassured Chinese officials that Tesla’s cars don’t pose a national security risk.
- Rights Group Asks FCC to Punish Chinese State Broadcaster — A group that has helped force CCTV off the air in the U.K. over airing forced confessions takes its case to the U.S.
- Chinese Tech Faces New Curbs on Connecting Banks and Borrowers — Regulators are considering stricter rules on internet lenders’ fee-based business.
The Financial Times
- Geely/luxury electrics: paying up to take on Tesla — Chinese car manufacturer’s strategy makes sense.
- France summons Beijing envoy in latest EU-China spat — Foreign ministry condemns ‘insults and threats’ against MPs and researcher.
- China’s answer to YouTube to raise $2.6bn in Hong Kong listing — Nasdaq-listed Bilibili’s share sale prices as Baidu falls flat on trading debut in city.
- US and EU to revive joint effort to handle more assertive China — Allied approach set to be unveiled as US secretary of state visits Brussels.
- China’s Geely challenges Tesla with launch of premium electric car brand — Country’s biggest passenger vehicle maker seeks to rival US group’s dominant position.
- China retaliates after US, EU and UK impose sanctions — Beijing imposes travel bans after co-ordinated western action against treatment of Uyghurs.
- Warner Music signs fresh China licensing deal with Tencent — US group to stream its songs in China as western record labels tap market following clampdown on piracy.
- As digital trade grows, so does western distrust of Beijing — China is moving to the forefront of global innovation but governments fear privacy breaches.
- Canada denied entry to Beijing trial of former diplomat — Michael Kovrig was arrested in apparent retaliation for 2018 detention of Huawei CFO.
The New York Times
- U.S. Joins Allies to Punish Chinese Officials for Human Rights Abuses — The sanctions come days after the Biden administration’s heated encounter with Chinese officials in Alaska, and will most likely widen tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Caixin
- CCI Partners with GCL to Form $1.5 Billion Carbon Neutrality Fund — Companies meet strong demand for green finance as Beijing seeks lower carbon emissions.
- China’s Largest Gold Miner Sees Profits Jump on Higher Prices — Zijin Mining also spent heavily on acquisitions last year, pushing its borrowings up by more than 50%.
- In Depth: Investors Dump China’s Vape-Makers as Regulators Look to Apply Tobacco Law — Shares of China’s biggest e-cigarette maker dive nearly 50% after detail-light announcement on tightening regulation.
- Tencent Music and Warner Music Launch Joint Venture and Extend Licensing Deals — Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME), a subsidiary of Chinese internet behemoth Tencent, has agreed to create a joint venture record label with Warner Music, in an attempt to give it an edge over rivals like NetEase Cloud Music and lure paid subscribers with larger licensed music libraries.
South China Morning Post
- Why Australia and New Zealand issued their own statement on US-led China sanctions — Australia and New Zealand have expressed support for a sanctions blitz by Western countries against Chinese officials over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang, despite not imposing penalties of their own.
- Baidu becomes first technology giant to make a flat debut in Hong Kong stock market this year as investors spurn the pivot by China’s dominant search engine towards artificial intelligence — Baidu, China’s dominant internet search engine company, started trading in Hong Kong with less than 1 per cent premium after completing its HK$23.7 billion (US$3.05 billion) stock offering, underperforming recent big technology listings in the city.
Bloomberg
- China Mulls Selling Aluminum From State Reserves to Cool Prices — China is considering the sale of about 500,000 tons of aluminum from state reserves, a move that would help cool the market and meet national emissions objectives, according to a person with knowledge of the plan.
- America Is Overtaking China in Covid-19 Vaccine Diplomacy — China squandered its early advantages, and now the U.S. government and drug makers are leading a second-half comeback.
- EV Charging Data Shows A Widely Divergent Global Path — China, anticipating rising EV demand, is making huge investments in infrastructure.
- Biden Finds China Is Too Big to Simply Lecture — When then-U.S. President Barack Obama met with President Hu Jintao at the White House in 2011, he raised China’s human rights record while touting the benefits of cooperation with the rising Asia power. A decade later, Obama-era politicians are taking a similar approach.
- Baidu CEO Engineers $66 Billion Comeback After Missteps — Baidu Inc.’s stock offering in Hong Kong Tuesday marks an unlikely resurgence for founder Robin Li, who has fought his way back to relevance in China’s technology industry after squandering a near-monopoly in search.
Reuters
- BNY Mellon sees net outflows from Chinese government bonds — Investors have become net sellers of Chinese government bonds (CGBs) in recent weeks, a BNY Mellon indicator showed, as rising U.S. yields and an aggressive American vaccination drive eat into the appeal of Chinese bonds.
- China’s Tencent faces concessions to win green light for giant videogaming merger: sources — Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd is having to offer concessions in a plan to merge the country’s top two videogame live-streaming sites in order to resolve antitrust concerns, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
- USTR says Tai, UK’s Truss discussed trade talks, China, aircraft dispute — U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai discussed with her British counterpart her ongoing review of previous U.S.-UK trade negotiations during the Trump administration and cooperating to jointly address unfair trade practices of China and other non-market economies, USTR said in a statement.
Other Publications
- Nikkei Asian Review: China ropes in Russia to push back against Western sanctions — Beijing and Moscow accuse Washington of creating Cold War-like alliance.
- Nikkei Asian Review: Toyota to produce key fuel cell components in China — Company’s first such factory overseas aimed at boosting adoption of the technology.
- Nikkei Asian Review: China hurdle threatens Applied Materials’ bid for Kokusai Electric — No green light from regulators by Friday would mean a $154m termination fee for KKR.
- Nikkei Asian Review: How Chinese fell out of love with marriage — Evergrande experts say many young people see wedlock as a financial padlock.
- Foreign Policy: Great Power Competition Is Not Enough — By Ben Judah, Trevor Sutton. The United States needs to show it can make a cleaner world than China’s.
- Foreign Policy: Young People in China Are Losing Faith in the West — By Eyck Freymann, Brian Y.S. Wong. And that spells trouble for liberal democracy and Beijing’s relations with Washington.
- POLITICO: China throws EU trade deal to the wolf warriors — EU-China relations have nose-dived in a showdown over sanctions.
- The Diplomat: Duterte’s Perilous China Gambit — The mass incursion of Chinese vessels into the Philippines’ EEZ is a dramatic demonstration of the limits of the president’s policy toward China.
- The Diplomat: The Belt and Road in Italy: 2 Years Later — Two years after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, where does the BRI stand in Italy?
