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
- Tesla Battery Supplier CATL Plans $9 Billion Share Sale to Boost Capacity — Chinese company has enjoyed robust sales growth from local electric-vehicle makers.
- Alibaba Sets Anti-Sexual Harassment Measures After Employee Allegations — The company will set up a prevention committee with five female executives after an employee accused her supervisor of assaulting her.
- Head of WHO Team Investigating Origins of Covid-19 Calls For Closer Look at China Lab — Peter Ben Embarek says investigators should seek more information about Wuhan CDC.
The Financial Times
- China streaming/Tencent Music: regulatory onslaught plays badly with investors — The country’s biggest music streaming company must find a new business model.
- China building new missile silo site, say US defence experts — Findings set to stoke fears that Beijing is pursuing more rapid nuclear build-up.
- China puts growth ahead of climate with surge in coal-powered steel mills — Study finds Beijing could struggle to honour pledge to reach peak CO2 emissions by 2030.
The New York Times
- Flooding in China kills 21, as thousands escape to shelters. — Heavy rainfall, expected to continue through Friday night, brought flooding that drove more than 7,200 people into shelters and damaged property.
Caixin
- China’s Carbon Market Records Its First Cross-Border Deal — Hong Kong buyers’ purchase of credits from Chinese solar project provides a sign of life even as trading of emission quotas dwindles away in market’s first month.
- Former ICBC Shanghai Branch Head Sentenced to Life — Gu Guoming convicted for accepting $21 million of bribes over 11 years amid a series of graft scandals rocking Shanghai banking.
South China Morning Post
- Chinese tutoring schools scramble for loopholes as top-tier firm Wall Street English collapses amid crackdown — Wall Street English, one of China’s wealthiest English tutoring companies, is expected to file for bankruptcy next week.
- Two Chinese activists sentenced to 15 months’ jail for archiving censored internet material — Two Chinese activists were sentenced to 15 months in prison on Friday for archiving censored internet materials during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a family member.
- WH Group’s founder quits, leaving world’s biggest pork producer without a successor after son was fired for ‘aggressive behaviour’ — Wan Long, the founder of WH Group, the world’s largest pork producer, has stepped down as the company’s chief executive, leaving his empire in the hands of non-family members after his son was unceremoniously booted out two months ago.
- Hong Kong’s Professional Teachers’ Union saw no choice but to ‘disband after Beijing emissaries warned it could no longer exist’ — Insiders say figures with close links to mainland Chinese officials told union leadership in no uncertain terms that efforts at conciliation were ‘useless.’
Bloomberg
- China’s Port Shutdown Raises Fears of Closures Worldwide — A Covid outbreak that has partially shut one of the world’s busiest container ports is heightening concerns that the rapid spread of the delta variant will lead to a repeat of last year’s shipping nightmares.
- Biggest Hong Kong Protest Group Faces Threat of Police Probe — Hong Kong’s police chief has warned a group that brought upwards of 2 million people into the streets during the city’s protest movement may have violated the Beijing-imposed national security law.
- China’s Education Crackdown Pushes Costly Tutors Underground — The crackdown is forcing tutors under the radar, making their services even more expensive — and exclusive.
- CIA Weighs Creating Special China Unit in Bid to Out-Spy Beijing — The Central Intelligence Agency is weighing proposals to create an independent “Mission Center for China” in an escalation of its efforts to gain greater insight into the U.S.’s top strategic rival, according to people familiar with the deliberations.
Reuters
- Australia concerned over year-long detention of journalist Cheng Lei — The Australian government is seriously concerned about the detention and welfare of an Australian journalist who has been held in Beijing for one year, foreign minister Marise Payne said on Thursday.
- China’s new U.S. envoy stresses importance of Taiwan in first high-level meeting — China’s newly appointed ambassador in Washington stressed the utmost importance of Taiwan in the Sino-U.S. relationship during his first meeting with a top U.S. official since assuming the job, according to Chinese state media.
- China’s CATL looks to raise $9 billion to expand lithium-ion battery production — Chinese battery giant CATL said it was planning a private share placement to raise up to 58.2 billion yuan ($8.98 billion) to fund six projects aimed at boosting its production capacity of lithium-ion batteries.
Other Publications
- The Australian: How China ‘disappeared’ Australian journalist Cheng Lei — She was accused of “unlawfully supplying or intending to supply state secrets or intelligence to an overseas organisation or individual”.
- The Washington Post: In China, the dream of an American education loses some of its gleam — Between the pandemic and worsening U.S.-China relations, the gleam of an American education is dimming in the world’s most populous country.
- Nikkei Asia: After NY exit, China Mobile eyes big U-turn with Shanghai listing — Company joins China Telecom and China Unicom in pivot back to roots.
- Quartz: Beijing’s crackdown on private tutoring is upending lives inside and outside China — Chinese English-language tutoring platforms became a major employer for young people from English-speaking countries. But now this pool of foreign teachers is feeling the pain of China’s tech clampdown.
- The New Yorker: Memories of a Vanishing China — A new book offers a glimpse into the country’s alternative-comics scene.
