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
- China’s Cyber Watchdog to Police Chinese Overseas Listings — The agency that prodded ride-hailing giant Didi to delay its IPO will take a lead role in regulating Chinese companies’ overseas listings.
- Suicide Attack on Hong Kong Police Officer Highlights Tension Over China’s Rule — Police called the attacker a lone-wolf terrorist; some citizens saw a desperate man under China’s national-security law.
- China Car Sales Fall With Chips in Short Supply — June sales were down 5.1% from a year earlier, ending an 11-month growth streak.
The Financial Times
- Chinese fitness app pulls New York IPO plan after Didi debacle — SoftBank and Tencent-backed Keep’s move comes as China cracks down on ride-hailing group.
- How the US and EU can compete with China’s Belt and Road — Beijing reins back its infrastructure ambitions but Washington and Brussels fail to plug the gap.
- Didi regulatory crackdown drags Hong Kong tech stocks lower — Hang Seng index down 13% since February peak after ride-hailing group’s IPO debacle.
- Biden faces green dilemma in push to build US rare earths capacity — White House wants to reduce reliance on China for critical materials but environmentalists have raised objections.
- China’s rival to Boeing and Airbus set to join battle for the skies — State-backed Comac’s C919 nears commercial approval as trade tensions rise with the west.
- Hong Kong’s legal system bears the scars of security law — One year on, long-cherished norms such as the right to bail and trial by jury are under attack.
- China takeover of UK silicon wafer plant to be reviewed over security — Nexperia buyout of south Wales-based Newport Wafer Fab referred for investigation.
The New York Times
- To Catch Teenage Gamers After Curfew, Chinese Company Deploys Facial Recognition — Tencent Games says it has been using facial recognition to enforce China’s rules on how much time people under 18 can spend playing video games.
- Why China’s Young People Are Embracing Chairman Mao — The chairman’s call for struggle and violence against capitalists is winning over a new audience of young people frustrated with long work hours and dwindling opportunities.
- Didi’s Regulatory Troubles Might Just Be Getting Started — After Beijing removed it from app stores over data concerns, the newly listed ride-hailing platform could face further scrutiny in China — and in the United States.
Caixin
- Exclusive: Bond Market Makers Disciplined for Phony Trades — Regulators blast Minsheng Bank, Guosen Securities and Guangdong Nanyue Bank for volume-inflating round-trip transactions in a warning to the market.
- Cross-Border Digital Payments Trial to Start by Year-End — Test of platform led by Hong Kong to involve banks and exchanges in Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, HKMA chief says.
- TikTok Trials Video Resumes to Help Users Find Work — TikTok is dipping a toe into the competitive U.S. recruitment market with a pilot program of video resumes, as the Chinese-owned app tries to expand beyond just being an online entertainment platform.
South China Morning Post
- US visa restrictions ‘necessary but don’t affect many Chinese students’ — Visa restrictions imposed by the United States on Chinese students affect just a small number of applicants and are needed to prevent China exploiting advanced US technology for its own ends, according to a US statement on Thursday.
- China digital currency: Beijing Winter Olympics next key trial as pilot programme expands to 10 million — China has made 10 million people eligible to participate in its expanding digital yuan trial as it continues to lead global central banks in developing a virtual currency, according to a central bank official.
- China has ‘ample room’ to absorb global minimum tax, but still ‘prickly’ on issues of economic sovereignty — China’s decision to back a global overhaul of cross-border taxation is likely to hinge on diplomatic calculations as much as economic concerns, according to experts.
Bloomberg
- Shipping Costs to the U.S. Surge 229% in a Year, Near $10,000 — The cost to ship a boxload of goods to the U.S. from China edged close to $10,000 as the world’s biggest economy keeps vacuuming up imports amid slower recoveries from the pandemic from Europe to Asia.
- Tesla Unveils Cheaper China-Made Model Y as Shipments Slip — Tesla Inc. debuted a significantly cheaper version of its locally built Model Y sports utility vehicle in China as deliveries for June slipped amid concern a string of negative publicity may have soured consumer sentiment toward the electric-carmaking pioneer.
- Evergrande’s $32 Billion of IOUs Add to Liquidity Concerns — As China Evergrande Group tries to quell concerns about its financial health, the property giant has gone to great lengths to publicize its shrinking debt load.
- Who’s Allowed to Find Out Hong Kong’s Corporate Information? Not Journalists. — In the eyes of the city’s government, it’s a privilege not a right to ask for details about who’s on a company’s board.
Reuters
- Explainer: How Chinese clampdown will target offshore listings — China’s securities regulator is setting up a team to review plans by Chinese companies for initial public offerings (IPOs) abroad, sources with knowledge of the matter said, including those using a corporate structure which Beijing says has led to abuse.
- Major U.S. index to remove more China stocks after Biden order — The S&P Dow Jones Indices and FTSE Russell on late Wednesday decided to remove more Chinese companies from their indices after an updated U.S. executive order barred domestic investment in firms with alleged ties to China’s military.
- Explainer: Is China set to cut RRR soon? What are the implications? — The Chinese government on Wednesday pledged to use timely cuts in the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves to support the slowing economy, raising expectations about an imminent move to ease policy.
- China says measures applied to Ant Group to be imposed on other payment firms — China’s central bank said on Thursday that anti-monopoly measures applied to e-commerce giant Alibaba’s financial technology affiliate Ant Group will also be imposed on other payment service companies.
Other Publications
- The Economist: China seems intent on decoupling its companies from Western markets — Nearly $2trn dollars in shareholder wealth are on the line.
- Politico: Biden’s new Cold War with China will result in climate collapse, progressives warn — A political fight is brewing among wings of the Democratic Party over Beijing’s help in curbing climate change versus curbing its human rights abuses.
- Nikkei Asia: Analysis: Xi becomes ‘Mao’ in Tiananmen visual effect — Chinese leader uses 100th anniversary ceremony to try the chairman look.
- Quartz: China’s online tutoring crackdown punishes parents trapped in a merciless system — Experts believe the moves reflect broader goals than merely curtailing an overheated market and easing pressure on students.
