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
- Intelligence on Sick Staff at Wuhan Lab Fuels Debate on Covid-19 Origin — Report says researchers went to hospital in November 2019, shortly before confirmed outbreak; adds to calls for probe of whether virus escaped lab.
- AMC and Wanda’s Unlikely Happy Ending — Wanda’s AMC acquisition finally pays off, but mostly comes down to luck.
- China’s Latest Crackdown on Bitcoin, Other Cryptocurrencies Shakes Market — Major digital-currency exchanges suspend some activities that targeted users in China.
- U.S.-China Tech Fight Opens New Front in Ethiopia — A U.S.-backed consortium beat a Chinese-backed one for a multibillion-dollar contract to build Ethiopia’s 5G-capable network.
- China Disappeared H&M From Its Internet, Splitting Fashion Industry Group — Members of ‘Better Cotton Initiative’ are divided over the group’s response to Chinese pressure.
- China’s Zhurong Rover Begins Roaming Mars — China becomes only the second country to successfully operate a rover on Mars after the U.S.
- #MeToo Supporters in China Discouraged as Accuser Faces Court Delay — A former intern who alleged she was sexually harassed by one of China’s best-known TV anchors says a court delayed her case hours before a scheduled hearing.
- Alibaba’s Winning Cloud Formula Is Coming Under Pressure — ByteDance, state sector had been solid customers, but times are getting tougher.
The Financial Times
- China steel: green targets mean pricier dishwashers — Beijing cannot backtrack on its carbon neutral goals without embarrassment.
- China warns on safety after 21 die in ultra-marathon race — Extreme weather kills elite runners in worst accident in trail-running history.
- Iron ore prices drop after China warns of ‘excessive speculation’ — Beijing increasingly concerned over record prices feeding through to rising inflation.
- China and US look to rekindle Paris bond to reach net zero — Negotiations resume after Trump hiatus but relations beyond climate issues remain rocky.
- Jack Ma to step down as president of his elite business school — Alibaba founder retreats from Hupan University as Beijing extends crackdown on entrepreneur.
- Can anything control a new generation of tiger parents? — While China considers restricting private tutoring hours, that seems a trifling obstacle to growing parental pressure.
- China’s top diplomat heads to Russia as ties reach ‘best level in history’ — Beijing and Moscow sense an opportunity in the face of fading US influence and Covid fallout.
- ByteDance staff and investors shocked as founder steps back — TikTok owner is preparing for IPO but faces Chinese government pressure.
- Beijing rebuffs Pentagon requests for high-level military talks — Stand-off comes amid rising tension over China’s military aggression towards Taiwan.
The New York Times
- Yuan Longping, Plant Scientist Who Helped Curb Famine, Dies at 90 — His development of high-yield rice hybrids in the 1970s led to steeply rising harvests in Asia and Africa and made him a national hero in China, credited with saving countless lives.
- Chinese Ultramarathon: 21 Runners Dead After Extreme Weather Hits Event — The 62-mile mountain race in Gansu Province left athletes in shorts and T-shirts facing freezing rain, hail and high winds.
- Risk of Nuclear War Over Taiwan in 1958 Said to Be Greater Than Publicly Known — The famed source of the Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsberg, has made another unauthorized disclosure — and wants to be prosecuted for it.
Caixin
- Hong Kong Mulls Allowing Non-Local Companies to Apply for Crypto Exchange License — Under new legislative proposals, retail investors would be prohibited from trading cryptocurrencies.
- Cover Story: The Accelerated Push for a Nationwide Property Tax — China may roll out pilot programs this year in Shenzhen and Hainan and have legislation in place for the rest of the country by 2025.
- China’s Shanshan and BASF Join Forces to Make Materials for Electric Vehicle Batteries — Chinese battery materials supplier Hunan Shanshan Energy and German chemicals giant BASF have agreed to work together to make key components for electric vehicle (EV) batteries in China, where demand for EVs is on the rise.
South China Morning Post
- China bitcoin mining: Huobi suspends domestic bitcoin mining amid global sell-off, wider Beijing scrutiny — Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi has suspended bitcoin mining services and sales of mining equipment in mainland China, becoming one of the first Chinese-founded platforms to do so, as the price of bitcoin continues to fall after the central government announced a crackdown.
- China-Australia relations: LNG imports hit record in April due to industrial demand, climate change pledge — China’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from Australia hit a record high in April, bolstered by robust industrial demand and Beijing’s climate change pledges, and analysts expect they will remain strong despite souring relations between the two countries.
- ByteDance rival Kuaishou posts 37 per cent quarterly sales growth — Short video-sharing app operator Kuaishou Technology reported on Monday a 37 per cent gain in first-quarter revenue, after TikTok-owner ByteDance’s biggest Chinese rival delved deeper into e-commerce and advertising.
Bloomberg
- China Mourns Death of Man Who Saved Millions From Hunger — The death of Yuan Longping, the Chinese agronomist known for using hybrid varieties to boost rice harvests during the Cultural Revolution era, has triggered an outpouring of tributes, including from President Xi Jinping.
- World’s Supply of Chips Is in Danger Unless Taiwan Gets Vaccines — A Covid-19 outbreak is leaving Taiwan squeezed between the U.S. and China, and on the back foot on several fronts.
- Shenzhen’s Shaky Tower Is a Cautionary Tale — After decades of heedless growth, a reckoning may finally be at hand.
- China Braces for $1.3 Trillion Maturity Wall as Defaults Surge — Even by the standards of a record-breaking global credit binge, China’s corporate bond tab stands out: $1.3 trillion of domestic debt payable in the next 12 months.
Reuters
- Ericsson flags risk of losing 5G market share in China — Ericsson said on Monday it might get lower share in China’s 5G roll-out than its share of the current telecom infrastructure market there, partly due to a spat over exclusion of Chinese vendors from Sweden’s roll-out of ultra-fast networks.
- China’s Fosun says willing to provide BioNTech vaccines to Taiwan — China’s Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd is willing to provide Taiwan with BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines, its chairman Wu Yifang told Xinhua news agency, amid a spike in domestic infections on the island.
- China says ByteDance, Baidu, Microsoft improperly collected user data — China’s internet watchdog said on Friday that companies including ByteDance, Baidu and Kuaishou had improperly collected user data.
- China’s Xi pledges $3 billion pandemic aid for poor nations — BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s President Xi Jinping on Friday pledged an additional $3 billion in aid over the next three years to help developing countries recover from the coronavirus pandemic, and proposed setting up an international forum on vaccine cooperation.
Other Publications
- Nikkei Asian Review: China and green energy drive copper prices to record high — Shares in Asian miners and nonferrous producers surge despite supply concerns.
- Nikkei Asian Review: Chinese farming billionaire seeks Hong Kong IPO for global deals — Despite tepid market response, New Hope’s Liu Yonghao plans aggressive expansion with M&As.
- Nikkei Asian Review: China is changing the way money is lent to countries in need — Beijing is now the world’s largest official source of development finance.
- Axios: Report: Beijing flooded Taiwan with coronavirus disinformation — Chinese government-backed disinformation flooded Taiwan in 2020, amplifying discord prior to Taiwan’s elections and spreading COVID-19-related disinformation aimed at delegitimizing Taiwan’s democratic government and improving Beijing’s image, a new report finds.
- The New Yorker: The Dark Side of Congo’s Cobalt Rush — Cell phones and electric cars rely on the mineral, causing a boom in demand. Locals are hunting for this buried treasure—but are getting almost none of the profit.
- AP News: Biden’s solar ambitions collide with China labor complaints — The Biden administration’s solar power ambitions are colliding with complaints the global industry depends on Chinese raw materials that might be produced by forced labor.
- The Diplomat: Managing the Military Problem of Space: The Case of China, Part 2 — Unlike the U.S. Space Force, China’s PLASSF is not an independent service.
- The Diplomat: The Chinese Are Coming – to Taiwan? — There are risks in hyping a threat.
