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
- Sexual-Assault Allegation at Alibaba Triggers Outrage, Investigation — Police looking into woman’s accusation against her then-supervisor; Chinese e-commerce giant’s CEO says he’s ‘furious’ in internal message.
- Alibaba Fires Manager Accused of Sexual Assault in China’s Latest Workplace Harassment Case — Two other employees resign, according to CEO’s memo, after woman’s allegations were shared across Chinese social media.
- China’s Attempts to Take the Stress Out of Schooling Sparks Its Own Angst — Beijing’s education overhaul, which aims to ease intense competition, turns life upside-down for anxious parents.
- U.S. Steps Up Pressure on Businesses Over Forced Labor in China — Beijing’s alleged use of forced labor in Xinjiang emerges as a top item in the Biden administration’s review of trade policy toward China.
- China’s Export Machine Still Hums Despite Covid-19, Extreme Weather — While export and import growth slowed in July, both were still strong.
- China’s Producer Prices Jump Despite Efforts to Cool Commodities Costs — Rise in factory-gate prices matches highest level in more than 12 years.
The Financial Times
- China’s ByteDance aims for Hong Kong IPO despite tech crackdown — TikTok owner has addressed regulators’ data security concerns in push to list by early next year.
- China Covid outbreak linked to Delta variant weighs on economy — Worst surge in infections since start of pandemic puts recovery under pressure.
- Chinese music group pulls $1bn Hong Kong IPO after tech crackdown — NetEase’s Cloud Village ditches listing as concerns grow over Beijing’s regulatory blitz.
- Renault targets China electric vehicle market with Geely tie-up — French group signs first big deal in country since exiting joint venture last year.
- Huawei drops 5G for new P50 phones as US sanctions grip — Embattled Chinese giant able to secure Qualcomm 4G chips for low-key launch.
- China’s education clampdown threatens to aggravate youth unemployment — Jobless rate among the under-25s three times higher than national average.
- China’s nanny state: why Xi is cracking down on gaming and private tutors — New restrictions reflect Beijing’s desire to maintain social control, but they also provide a window on to the strains of urban life.
The New York Times
- Tokyo’s Olympic Bubble? Wait Till You See Beijing’s. — For the Winter Games, just six months away, China plans far more elaborate Covid-19 precautions than were taken at the Summer Olympics.
- Alibaba Will Fire Employee After Rape Accusation — Two senior managers also resigned for failing to respond appropriately after the woman reported the incident, the company’s chief executive said in a memo.
- Pro-Beijing Clubs Will Help Pick Hong Kong’s Next Leader — Beijing is making it nearly impossible for the pro-democracy camp to win city elections. One tool: “grass roots” groups loyal to the government.
Caixin
- ByteDance Denies Reports of a Hong Kong Listing Plan — Beijing-based company rejects Financial Times article which said it would file for an IPO by early 2022.
- Airbus Says New Narrow-Body Planes Could ‘Complement’ Chinese Craft on Regional Routes — Comments come as investors try to gauge just how much of a threat the country’s push to use more of its own aircraft might be to foreign firms.
- Fidelity Cleared to Open Its Own China Mutual Fund Business — American investment giant joins BlackRock as rivals line up for approval to tap the wealth market amid easing controls on financial services.
- Beijing Prosecutor Mulls Civil Action Against Tencent for Alleged Harm to Youth — The public-interest civil suit says the tech firm’s ‘youth mode’ breaches national law protecting minors, without saying how.
South China Morning Post
- How Kuaishou, Hong Kong’s hottest IPO in 2021, became a cautionary tale of overexuberance in Chinese tech stocks — Kuaishou has lost about 80 per cent of its value even though it has not been a direct target of Beijing’s crackdown on China’s internet industry.
- Zhang Yiming’s education dream dashed by Beijing as ByteDance pulls back from tutoring — ByteDance is making a speedy retreat from the education sector, formerly a strategic area the Beijing-based owner of TikTok had invested heavily in over the past two years, after Beijing’s new policy banned the pursuit of profit from off-campus tutoring.
- Bilibili unveils record number of games despite fears of Beijing’s tighter regulatory scrutiny — Chinese online entertainment giant Bilibili unveiled a record 16 new games at its summer launch event, including six self-developed titles, despite regulatory scrutiny reaching a fever pitch last week after state media criticised video games as “spiritual opium”.
- Tencent censors article on China’s widening tech gap with US, written by its own researcher — Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings censored an article by one of its own staff researchers published on Friday that discussed the country’s widening gap in the digital economy with the US and stressed the importance of the tech sector amid Beijing’s ongoing crackdown on related industries.
Bloomberg
- We Doctor Is Said to Face Data Queries From HKEX Ahead of IPO — We Doctor Holdings Ltd. is fielding queries about its data governance from Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. as the Chinese health-care startup pursues an initial public offering in the city, according to people familiar with the matter.
- China’s Summer of Stock Market Turbulence: A Timeline — China’s overhaul of tutoring companies ignited a volatile few weeks for stock markets both onshore and in Hong Kong, leaving investors on edge.
- Former H.K. IPO Vetting Chief Pleads Not Guilty as Trial Begins — A former Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. executive in charge of vetting initial public offerings pleaded not guilty in the Hong Kong District Court on Monday to allegations of bribery.
- China Education Firms to End Most Classes With Foreign Teachers — China’s largest private education firms said they will stop providing classes taught by foreign-based tutors to students in the country, in response to a recent government directive aimed at rectifying the $100 billion sector.
Reuters
- Handful of cities driving urban greenhouse gas emissions – study — Just 25 big cities – almost all of them in China – accounted for more than half of the climate-warming gases pumped out by a sample of 167 urban hubs around the world.
- Wolfsburg, we have a problem: How Volkswagen stalled in China — In late December 2019, managers at Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg realised they might have a serious problem in China, the company’s biggest market and ticket to its electric future.
- Hong Kong minister signals path to adopting China anti-sanctions law — Hong Kong’s justice secretary said on Sunday that a mainland Chinese law to counter foreign sanctions could also be adopted in the China-ruled city by writing it into Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, pending a decision by the Chinese parliament.
- VIPKid to stop selling foreign-based tutoring to students in China — Tencent Holdings-backed Chinese education firm VIPKid said on Saturday it would stop selling classes taught by foreign-based tutors to students in China with immediate effect to comply with new rules announced for the country’s private education sector.
Other Publications
- The Washington Post: China’s lonely hearts reboot online romance with artificial intelligence — “Boys never learn, but Qimat does,” said Milly Zhang, a student at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore.
- Nikkei Asia: Pakistan replaces its Belt and Road chief with Beijing favorite — Removal of retired army general from top position stirs debate among businesses.
- Nikkei Asia: North Korea prepares to resume trade with China — Pyongyang wary of COVID-19 but can’t ignore crises at home.
- Foreign Policy: China’s Growing Censorship Is Training the Public to Be Online Snitches — Everyone from feminists to nationalists is a potential target.
- Rest of World: The race to build Africa’s 5G networks is entangled in a U.S. push to cut Huawei’s dominance — One fiercely anti-Huawei US telecomms vendor is leading the charge to turn African mobile network bosses away from China.