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 Appears to Be Building New Silos for Nuclear Missiles, Researchers Say — Discovery from commercial satellite imagery follows another U.S. think-tank analysis appearing to identify a separate missile-silo project.
- China Prepares New Anti-Sanction Laws for Hong Kong and Macau — Rules threaten to punish companies that comply with U.S. and European bans.
- China to Revise Population Law to Reverse Birthrate Decline — Lawmakers look to remove legal obstacles keeping couples from having more children.
- As China Cleans Up From Zhengzhou Floods, Authorities Keep a Grip on Information — Police stop people from taking photos of hard-hit areas, tell reporters they can’t cover flood response without official clearance.
The Financial Times
- Top European investor says Chinese regulatory crackdown is ‘noise’ — DWS chief says asset managers must take long-term view when doing business in China.
- Chinese businessman who challenged Beijing jailed for 18 years — Agricultural tycoon Sun Dawu sentenced as Xi Jinping reins in entrepreneurs that question rule.
- Taliban officials visit China to discuss security after US pulls out — Delegation meets foreign minister Wang Yi as American troop withdrawal draws closer.
- China stock market sell-off slows as investors wait on Beijing’s next move — Shares have been pummelled as Chinese authorities mount regulatory assault.
- Hong Kong police warnings of terrorist threat met with scepticism — Concerns of violent underground movement persist but analysts say incidents have been overplayed.
- Biden warns cyber attacks could lead to a ‘real shooting war’ — US president’s remarks follow breaches that paralysed critical services.
- Beijing’s threat to VIEs triggers Wall St angst over China stocks — Investors worry crackdown on structure used by education companies could spread to other sectors.
- Evergrande’s tumultuous week renews fears of liquidity crisis — Concerns mount over hugely indebted Chinese developer after credit downgrade and cancelled dividend.
The New York Times
- After the Floods, China Found a Target for Its Pain: Foreign Media — Western journalists reporting on a natural disaster met with public hostility in person and online that was openly encouraged by the Chinese state media.
- After Years of Chinese Influence, U.S. Tries to Renew Ties in Southeast Asia — Lloyd J. Austin III, the American defense secretary, became the first high-ranking official in the Biden administration to travel to a region that has long received close attention from Beijing.
- As China Boomed, It Didn’t Take Climate Change Into Account. Now It Must. — China’s breathtaking economic growth created cities ill-equipped to face extreme weather. Last week’s dramatic floods showed that much will have to change.
Caixin
- In Depth: The Fall of China’s Last Bitcoin Mining Haven — A manager and an investor of a Sichuan Bitcoin mining farm told Caixin about how they had been building their wealth during China’s crypto gold rush — and now they couldn’t do that anymore.
- Anxin Trust to Raise 9 Billion Yuan in State-Backed Bailout — Company releases details of rescue involving cash injection from special purpose vehicle partly controlled by the Shanghai government.
- South China Coal Power Giant Makes Yet Another Big Bet on Solar — The 12 billion yuan project in Qinghai province is the sixth new-energy project that Guangdong Electric has announced in the past year, with the combined investment representing about two times its total annual revenue.
South China Morning Post
- More than 100 Nobel Prize winners accuse China of ‘bullying’ after effort to stop Dalai Lama and pro-Taiwan independence chemist from speaking at summit — More than 100 Nobel Prize winners have accused the Chinese government of trying to “bully the scientific community” by trying to stop two laureates from speaking at the Nobel Prize Summit earlier this year.
- China’s domestic brands boom, fuelled by nationalism, with Li-Ning, Anta standing out from the crowd — Domestic brands like Li-Ning and Anta have benefited, boosted by rising nationalism, improvements in quality and a multimillion dollar live commerce sector.
- Hong Kong appoints investigator to probe fraud allegations in the financial affairs of Apple Daily’s publisher Next Digital — Hong Kong’s government announced a rare appointment of an inspector under the Companies Act to probe the firm’s finances.
Bloomberg
- China’s Escalating Property Curbs Point to Xi’s New Priority — After a years-long campaign to tame property prices, China is upping the ante to break a stubborn cycle of gains that’s made homes increasingly unaffordable.
- Under Siege, China’s EdTech Giants Take Steps to Contain Fallout — China’s largest private education firms are moving swiftly to overhaul their businesses to adjust to a harsh new reality after Beijing launched a sweeping crackdown on the $100 billion sector.
- Lawmakers Press Companies to Drop Support for Beijing Olympics — Members of a congressional panel urged U.S. corporations including Coca-Cola Co. and Visa Inc. to pull their sponsorship of the 2022 Winter Olympics unless the games are moved out of Beijing, adding another pressure point in the strained relationship between the world’s two biggest economies.
- China Move to Fight Sanctions Gives Hong Kong Banks New Worry — China’s top legislative body will take the first steps toward imposing an anti-sanctions law on Hong Kong, local media reported, a move that could create complications for multinationals caught in rising tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Reuters
- China starts blocking paid after-school tutoring by public-school teachers — China’s Ministry of Education said on Wednesday that it had begun implementing a campaign to stop paid after-school tutoring services provided by teachers working for public primary and middle schools.
- Analysis – No gain without pain: Why China’s reform push must hurt investors — Carnage in China’s financial markets signals the beginning of a new era, investors say, as the government puts socialism before shareholders and regulatory changes rip apart the old playbook.
- Foreign journalists harassed covering China floods, correspondents’ club says — Journalists from several media outlets covering recent floods in China were harassed online and by local residents, with staff from the BBC and Los Angeles Times receiving death threats, according to the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC).
Other Publications
- Nikkei Asia: Losing Face: the perils of Facebook’s Asia strategy — Compromises with regional governments speed access to growth markets
- Nikkei Asia: Didi’s China rivals go full speed for customers after app ban — Smaller ride-hailing services shower new users and drivers with incentives.
- The Economist: Under Xi Jinping, the number of Chinese asylum-seekers has shot up — More and more people are fleeing his rule
- The Atlantic: The Nation That Faced Down China — Beijing’s failed efforts to bully Australia have highlighted the limits of its power.
- The Atlantic: The End of Free Speech in Hong Kong — The conviction of a pro-democracy activist is a watershed moment.
- Foreign Affairs: Rivalry Without Racism — Can America Compete with China and Avoid Fueling Anti-Asian Hate?
- Protocol: Who should be scared of China’s big, bad digital yuan? — Hint: It’s the payment platforms, not their users.
- Rest of World: How tech companies should plan for Hong Kong’s precarious future — Authorities haven’t cracked down on Google and Facebook — yet. This is the moment they should protect their users.
