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
- For China’s Small Businesses, Life Is Still Far From Normal — Millions of privately run companies are still struggling, potentially dimming the country’s dazzling recovery.
- Russia, China Top Agenda as Blinken Visits Ukraine, U.K. — Biden’s top diplomat to meet with G-7 counterparts in London, offer assurances of U.S. support in Kyiv.
- Fidelity Halves Its Ant Group Valuation After Beijing’s Clampdown — Asset manager marked Ant shares in several of its funds at prices that implied a $144 billion valuation at the end of February.
- Biden’s Foreign Policy Takes a Back Seat to Domestic Priorities — On China, Russia and elsewhere, president recasts the U.S. approach, but avoids major initiatives as he focuses energies at home.
- U.S. Says China Must Do More to Protect Intellectual Property — Trade office says measures Beijing has adopted in the last year don’t go far enough.
- China Beefs Up Antimonopoly Body Amid Regulatory Push — Beijing’s antitrust watchdog grows as it wades through a backlog of regulatory cases.
The Financial Times
- Lousy demographics will not stop China’s rise — The old maxim ‘demography is destiny’ no longer holds in the same way that it used to.
- Australia reviews Chinese ownership of Darwin port over security risks — Decision announced a week after Canberra rips up two Belt and Road deals in Victoria.
- Europe to crank up regulatory pressure on China — Proposals seek to restrict foreign subsidised companies and assert EU’s ‘strategic autonomy’.
- Cameron set to give up on UK-China investment fund — Former UK PM’s plans hit by geopolitical tensions as well as lack of investor appetite.
- West and allies relaunch push for own version of China’s Belt and Road — EU and US seek to put infrastructure initiative on G7 agenda to counter Beijing’s global reach.
- Australian winemaker looks to sidestep China’s 218% tariffs — Accolade CEO plans to boost business in world’s second-biggest economy despite trade tensions.
Caixin
- Patchy Risk Disclosure Earns Shanghai Pudong Development Bank a Slap on the Wrist — The joint-stock commercial bank was fined $1.2 million for breaching regulatory requirements when selling investment products.
- China’s Policy Banks Miss Deadline to File Last Year’s Annual Reports — Reviewing the annual reports of the CDB, ADBC and the Import-Export Bank of China is a relatively slow process, sources say.
- HNA Units’ $15 Billion in Losses Show the Challenges in Store for Restructuring China’s Profligate Conglomerates — The 13 listed companies set aside enormous sums to absorb potential losses stemming from bankruptcy restructuring.
- China Hits More Internet Businesses With Antitrust Fines — Tencent and units of Alibaba, Didi Chuxing and Suning.com are among those penalized in authorities’ continued effort to rein in a freewheeling industry.
South China Morning Post
- China’s population census data has become the worst-kept state secret — China’s top statistics bureau missed its own schedule for releasing the results of its latest once-in-a-decade census, with the delay prompting people to wonder why.
- Hong Kong’s total property sales surged to US$10.6 billion in April, highest in 23 months, Centaline predicts — Hong Kong’s total property sales, including homes, shops, industrial units and parking spaces, may have soared to their highest monthly level in almost two years as buyers bet on the local economy bouncing back from recession amid a decline in coronavirus cases.
- Why has TSMC’s Nanjing expansion plan stirred up a hornets’ nest in Beijing and Taipei? — While the decision by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s biggest contract chip manufacturer, to expand production at its plant in Nanjing, the capital city of Chinese coastal province Jiangsu, may make sense amid a global chip shortage, it has nonetheless stirred cross-strait tensions.
Bloomberg
- Hong Kong Ends Record Slump With Fastest Growth in a Decade — Hong Kong’s economy finally turned the corner, posting its fastest growth since 2010 as the city makes a stronger recovery from the pandemic and social unrest before that.
- More Than 40 Hong Kong Stocks Stay Halted for Delaying Earnings — More than 40 Hong Kong stocks worth a combined HK$140.9 billion ($18.1 billion) remain suspended from trading after failing to release their 2020 earnings, the highest number of such halts in at least five years.
- Tesla Crash Protest Brings Elon Musk Up Against China Power — Elon Musk is used to treating the authorities with contempt. That won’t fly in China.
Reuters
- China’s internet watchdog finds 33 mobile apps broke data privacy rules — China’s main internet watchdog has found that 33 mobile phone apps have broken data privacy rules by collecting data without consent, among other issues.
- Tesla, under scrutiny in China, steps up engagement with regulators – sources — BEIJING (Reuters) -Electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc, facing scrutiny in China over safety and customer service complaints, is boosting its engagement with mainland regulators and beefing up its government relations team, industry sources said.
- China’s Waterdrop aims to raise $360 million in New York IPO — Chinese online insurance technology firm Waterdrop Inc aims to raise up to $360 million in an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, company filings show.
Other Publications
- AP News: Russia turns to China to make Sputnik shots to meet demand — Russia is turning to multiple Chinese firms to manufacture the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in an effort to speed up production as demand soars for its shot.
- The Diplomat: Northeast China: Still Waiting for Regionalism — China’s rust belt is a case study in how local conditions and priorities can clash with grand plans for economic integration.
- Foreign Affairs: China and Russia’s Dangerous Convergence — How to Counter an Emerging Partnership.
- Foreign Policy: Killing Hong Kong’s Free Press Will Harm Its Economy — By Suzanne Nossel, the CEO of PEN America. Beijing is betting expats will flock to the city despite China’s draconian media crackdown—but they could vote with their feet.
- Nikkei Asian Review: India emerges as China’s tech challenger with record unicorn run — Startup valuations soar as pandemic boosts online services.
- Nikkei Asian Review: China’s digital yuan is a transaction helper, not a Trojan horse — Beijing puts itself at the forefront of new currency development.