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
- Alibaba Posts Lower Profit as Chinese Tech Giant Boosts Spending — Company bolsters new services as it faces more competition in China’s e-commerce market.
- Tencent Selloff Shows Deep Scar Tissue in Chinese Markets — After the crackdown on education companies, every regulatory blip is seen as a possible death sentence.
- China Wants Manufacturing—Not the Internet—to Lead the Economy — Even as Beijing unleashes a regulatory assault against tech companies, it continues to shower subsidies and protection on manufacturers.
The Financial Times
- Short sellers double bets against China Evergrande’s bonds — Investor sentiment sours further against hugely indebted property developer facing cash crunch.
- The terms of China’s massive loan spree — Research looks at how the world’s largest sovereign creditor lends.
- Alibaba’s growth slows as China pushes tech regulation — Ecommerce giant also faces increased competition from Pinduoduo and JD.com
- Tencent/Alibaba: reading between the lions after ‘spiritual opium’ slur — Beijing’s game of sectoral whack-a-mole means investors must expect limits on share valuations.
The New York Times
- I.O.C. seeks answers after two Chinese athletes wore Mao pins during the medal ceremony. — The cyclists’ badges are a potential violation of Rule 50 of the Olympic charter, which bans “political, religious or racial propaganda” at Olympic venues.
- Is Taiwan Next? — In Taipei, young people like Nancy Tao Chen Ying watched as the Hong Kong protests were brutally extinguished. Now they wonder what’s in their future.
- Delta Outbreak Tests China’s Covid Strategy — The government has imposed lockdowns and is testing and tracing aggressively to fight a new outbreak. Experts say it is time for the country to rethink its approach to the virus.
Caixin
- Hong Kong Fines UBS $1.5 Million for Compliance Failures — Penalty imposed after the Swiss financial giant failed to disclose financial interests in Hong Kong-listed firms it covered in research reports
- Charles Li’s Next Act: Investing in Small Businesses — Former chief of Hong Kong exchange links up with private equity investor Zhang Gaobo to launch Micro Connect platform steering funds to Chinese entrepreneurs
- Kuaishou Pulls Plug on Video App Zynn After Fleeting U.S. Success Tanks Amid Controversy — One of China’s top technology firms is killing off a short-video app that briefly made it big in the United States last year before becoming embroiled in a series of bitter controversies.
South China Morning Post
- Nike’s former supplier Esquel Group scores a rare win in a bid to remove Xinjiang unit from US forced-labour sanctions list — Esquel Group, one of the world’s biggest shirtmakers, won a rare victory in its effort to get one of its subsidiaries removed from a United States government blacklist over allegations of ties to forced labour in western China.
- The Trump card, the wild card, and Meng Wanzhou’s narrow flight path to freedom — The final scheduled phase of the tech executive’s epic extradition case is about to begin in Canada, carrying the prospect of her release – or a US trial.
- Former Chinese government spokesman calls for ‘friendly’ approach to foreign media — Against a backdrop of increasing pressure on international news outlets, an adviser to the Hainan free port advocates more interaction.
- How Tencent missed its chance to join the trillion-dollar club: a brief history — At the beginning of 2021, the trillion-dollar club almost added a new member: Tencent Holdings. However, the social media and gaming giant saw its momentum flag as China’s government ramped up the pressure on the country’s entire technology sector.
Bloomberg
- Chinese Hackers Compromised Telecom Firms, Researchers Say — Chinese state-backed hacking groups compromised at least five global telecommunications companies and stole phone records and location data, according to cybersecurity researchers.
- Tencent Bounces Back After State Media Soften Tone on Gaming — Chinese media including the Communist Party’s flagship newspaper toned down their criticism of the games industry on Wednesday, helping Tencent Holdings Ltd. and its peers recoup some of their losses from a market rout a day earlier.
- Banks From HSBC to Citi Shrug Off China Risks, Embrace H.K. — Growing geopolitical tensions and pulled initial public offerings have done little to damp the appetite of Western banks for Hong Kong and China.
Reuters
- China intervenes to manage commodity prices — Chinese policymakers have been trying to tame surging commodity prices – from coal to copper – that have squeezed manufacturers’ margins in the world’s second biggest economy.
- China’s key commodities targeted by Beijing’s recent measures — As a key producer, importer and consumer of most of the world’s major commodities, China is uniquely sensitive to sharp price rises or supply disruptions in the raw materials on which its manufacturing sector and massive population depends.
- Analysis – Reality bites: China’s meddling cools but can’t reverse hot commodity prices — A slew of measures by Chinese authorities to tame soaring raw material costs has had only a fleeting effect, leaving the world’s largest manufacturing base facing the harsh reality of substantially higher input costs for the foreseeable future.
Other Publications
- The Globe and Mail: Report claims U.S. tech companies continue to power China’s surveillance state — Equipment supplied by American businesses remains vital to the operation of China’s nationwide surveillance and censorship apparatus.
- Associated Press: China sticks to goal of having carbon emissions peak by 2030 — Envoy Xie Zhenhua said in an online webinar on climate change that China will release updated plans to reduce emissons soon and elaborate on its plans during a U.N. climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland, later this year.
- The New Yorker: John Kerry on the Unfathomable Stakes of the Next U.N. Climate-Change Conference — Ahead of a major summit, the first special Presidential envoy for climate discusses the diplomatic tightrope he faces post-Trump, and the best outcome he can hope to achieve.
- Nikkei Asia: Apple taps more China suppliers for its latest iPhones — Rise of Chinese assemblers and component makers comes amid tech tensions with US.
- Nikkei Asia: Leave them kids alone: Parents tire of China’s world-beating education system — Cram schools and private tutoring curtailed to level the field and lower anxiety.