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
- What the U.S. Can Learn From China’s Infatuation With Infrastructure — Beijing’s building boom inspires awe in even the staunchest U.S. critics, but emulating it is a different story.
- H&M Summoned by Chinese Authorities Over Mapping Issue — In the latest trouble for the clothing giant, its website is flagged for containing ‘problematic Chinese maps’.
- Georgia Spa-Shooting Victim Is Mourned by Chinese-American Community — The body of Daoyou Feng, who died at 44 in mass attack last month, had lain unclaimed for seven days.
- Biden, Georgia and the Beijing Olympics — By The Editorial Board. The President puts himself in a bind over athletic boycotts.
The Financial Times
- China stand-up comics find authorities no longer get the joke — Performers increasingly draw ire of officials and socially conservative commentators.
- UK lawyers feel ripples of Chinese sanctions on Essex Court Chambers — Barristers warn move could lead to self-censorship at firms wary of antagonising Beijing.
- China looks to rein in lending to cool property boom — Small and foreign banks rush to ‘radically’ reduce loans that buoyed Covid recovery.
- Multinationals tread cautious path in China boycott — Diplomatic row over Xinjiang abuse allegations risks lasting impact on foreign brands attempting to clean up supply chains.
- Chinese tech groups scrap IPOs at record pace after Ant listing pulled — Companies cancel plans to sell shares on Shanghai’s Star Market as regulatory scrutiny rises.
- Hong Kong executives choose China Covid vaccine to get mainland visas — Beijing offers smoother entry procedures to visitors who take locally made jabs.
- China intensifies Xinjiang propaganda push as global backlash grows — State broadcaster blames ‘terrorist threat’ to justify clampdown on Uyghurs in region.
The New York Times
- Kristofer Schipper, Influential China Scholar, Dies at 86 — A native of Holland, he helped change the understanding of Chinese religion and became a Taoist priest in the process.
- With Swarms of Ships, Beijing Tightens Its Grip on South China Sea — After building artificial islands, China is using large fleets of ostensibly civilian boats to press other countries’ vessels out of disputed waters.
- A Chinese ‘Auntie’ Went on a Solo Road Trip. Now, She’s a Feminist Icon. — Tired of housework and an unhappy marriage, a 56-year-old woman has been on a six-month jaunt across China that has challenged deep-rooted gender norms.
- China’s New Rules Worry Foreign Banks and Companies — New rules, aimed at taming big money flows and possibly controlling the Chinese currency, could give domestic rivals a competitive edge and make international firms more dependent on local lenders.
- Britain Holds On to a Colony in Africa, With America’s Help — And together they are sabotaging their own efforts to curb China’s advances in the South China Sea.
Caixin
- Exclusive: Corrupt Shanghai Clearing House Ex-Boss Brought Down by Hidden Bonuses, Sources Say — Xu Zhen skirted salary limits through undeclared tax refunds and secret payments, sources told Caixin.
- Huarong Asset Management Shares Suspended in Hong Kong Trading — Troubled state-owned bad debt manager misses March 31 deadline for reporting 2020 results, saying auditors need more time to sort out certain transactions.
- Chinese Co-Developer of DNA Covid Vaccine Raises $66 Million — Advaccine and U.S.-based vaccine-maker Inovio Pharmaceuticals are creating a shot that is easier to produce, store and ship than many of the leading coronavirus inoculations.
- Ex-Boss of Chinese Military Gear Giant Investigated for Corruption — Yin Jiaxu, former chairman of China North Industries Group, has been accused of serious violations of law and Communist Party discipline.
- China’s Top Shipbuilder Just Got Its Biggest Order Ever — CSSC wins $1.6 billion contract to build 13 container ships, possibly for MSC Mediterranean Shipping.
- TSMC to Beef Up Chip Production Capacity with $100 Billion Investment Plan — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) unveiled on Thursday a plan to invest $100 billion over the next three years to increase capacity at its plants, a move that came amid a shortage of chips that has hindered the production of makers of cars, phones, laptops and even appliances, according to Reuters.
South China Morning Post
- China’s steel mills must improve efficiency if they’re to cut their huge carbon emissions, say analysts — China’s steel mills can meet their goal of reducing carbon emissions if the industry is willing to accept the high cost of improving the efficiency of production, according to analysts.
- Could US-China tensions hinder Beijing’s plans to integrate further with global financial markets? — The pressure is on for Chinese banks now the country is opening its financial sector to top-flight global competitors.
- Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan will not be a boon to China-US relationship — Chinese government officials and researchers have argued for years that China could work with the United States on infrastructure, helping to improve America’s roads, bridges, railways and subways.
- China’s carbon reduction target looks elusive as banks keep throwing cash at coal mines and power plants, undercutting Xi Jinping’s plan to slash fossil fuels — On an unseasonably warm autumn day last October, the world’s largest coal-fired power plant fired up in the Anhui provincial city of Huaibei in eastern China.
- JD Technology withdraws IPO application in Shanghai amid China’s fintech rule changes — Fintech company JD Technology has pulled its IPO application in China’s Nasdaq-style Star Market. The withdrawal came a day before parent JD.com completed a reorganisation that transferred its cloud and AI operations to JD Technology.
Bloomberg
- Tesla China Demand Fuels ‘Home Run’ Quarter for Deliveries — Tesla Inc.’s estimate-smashing deliveries of electric vehicles in the first quarter suggest boss Elon Musk’s bet on growth in China and Europe is starting to pay off.
- World’s Biggest Solar Company Joins the Hydrogen Game — China’s Longi Green Energy Technology Co., the world’s biggest solar company, is entering the hydrogen market, industry publication Solarzoom reported.
- U.S.-China Cold War Will Have More Than Two Sides — Countries aren’t going to fall neatly into opposing blocs this time any more than they did the last.
- China Drafts Tougher Capital Rules for Too-Big-to-Fail Banks — China’s financial regulators plan to impose additional capital requirements on the nation’s systemically important banks, seeking to curb risks and safeguard stability of the $49 trillion industry.
Reuters
- China reports biggest daily COVID-19 case jump in over 2 months — (Reuters) -China reported its biggest daily jump in new COVID-19 cases in more than two months, as a city on the border with Myanmar in southwestern Yunnan province accounted for all new local cases.
- China to donate 150,000 Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine doses to El Salvador — El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said on Sunday that China will donate 150,000 Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine doses to the Central American nation, on top of the 2 million Sinovac jabs his government already purchased.
Other Publications
- The New Yorker: Surviving the Crackdown in Xinjiang — As mass detentions and surveillance dominate the lives of China’s Uyghurs and Kazakhs, a woman struggles to free herself.
- Nikkei Asian Review: US sanctions often advance China’s interests — Iran, Russia and Myanmar pivot to Beijing as Biden applies outdated policy.
- RWR Advisory: Chinese Companies Active in the Architecture of Open Radio Active Networks — Open RAN is an approach to “radio access network” (RAN) design that permits operators to mix and match RAN components from different manufacturers (rather than being built as a proprietary end-to-end solution). It is being heralded by many as a viable strategy for replacing Huawei with a similarly cost-effective solution, but one that avoids embedding untrusted Chinese companies (and components) into 5G infrastructure.