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.
Paid subscribers automatically have this list emailed directly to their inboxes every day by 10 a.m. EST. Subscribe here.
The Wall Street Journal
- Evergrande Executives Summoned to Meeting With China’s Financial Regulators — Indebted real-estate developer told to maintain stability in the property and financial markets.
- Tencent to Work With Chinese Regulators to Limit Minors’ Online Game Time — Tech giant reports slowing revenue growth as Beijing tightens regulations on sector.
- Chinese Bad-Debt Manager Huarong to Be Bailed Out by State-Owned Companies — Manager of distressed assets says it expects to post a net loss equivalent to about $16 billion for 2020.
- Video: China’s Tiangong vs. International Space Station: Tech, Design Unpacked — China says its spacecraft has more advanced technology.
The Financial Times
- Baidu’s $1bn bond draws strong demand despite China tech crackdown — Debt sale attracts $5bn to $6bn in orders even as regulatory assault hits search group’s shares.
The New York Times
- China’s Biggest ‘Bad Bank’ Will Get a Rescue — After months of silence about its future, the corporate giant Huarong Asset Management announced that it would receive financial assistance from a group of state-backed companies.
- Hong Kong Police Arrest University Students for ‘Advocating Terrorism’ — The student union leaders, who were detained under the national security law, had expressed sympathy for a man who stabbed a police officer before killing himself.
Caixin
- Huarong Bonds Surge on Bailout Hopes Despite Huge Loss — State-owned asset management giant plans to bring strategic investors on board.
- Investors Dump More Alibaba Shares as Bears and Bulls Grapple — T. Rowe Price ditches 16 million shares while Goldman Sachs buys nearly 6 million.
South China Morning Post
- Meng Wanzhou’s Canadian extradition hearings are over, almost 1,000 days after airport arrest — Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes adjourned the hearing by saying she would hold a case management conference by phone on October 21, at which time she would announce a date for rendering her ruling.
- China-US relations: against backdrop of tension, Beijing’s envoy talks of ‘old friends’ in Iowa — China’s ambassador to the United States has highlighted the American state of Iowa’s close ties to the Chinese leadership, the latest gesture in a streak of conciliatory actions since he took up the post.
- China shipping: container disruptions inevitable at Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, but impact may be ‘marginal’ — As rumours swirl about a possible reopening time frame for a key terminal at the world’s largest port by cargo tonnage, analysts and industry insiders say any problems in the global supply chain could be milder than those seen earlier this year at China’s Yantian Port in Shenzhen.
- Apple’s mainland China political censorship extends to product engravings in Hong Kong and Taiwan, researchers say — Apple has applied rules for blocking political content on product engraving in mainland China into the popular service’s operations in Hong Kong and Taiwan, according to researchers at The Citizen Lab in Canada.
Bloomberg
- How Afghanistan Snags China in a $282 Billion Creditor Trap — The danger comes from instability in Pakistan, where Beijing banks has invested heavily. The Chinese still have nightmares about a major miscalculation in Venezuela.
- Hong Kong Activists Call Jimmy Lai ‘Mastermind’ in Security Case — A pair of Hong Kong activists identified Jimmy Lai and a former aide as “masterminds” in a campaign to sanction China, as part of a plea deal that strengthens the government’s national security case against the jailed media tycoon.
- Goldman-Backed InferVision Said to Pick Banks for Hong Kong IPO — InferVision, a medical artificial intelligence technology provider, has picked banks to work on its Hong Kong initial public offering which could raise about $300 million, according to people familiar with the matter.
Reuters
- Taliban’s return clouds long-delayed plans for Afghanistan’s resources — China is warily eyeing the resumption of some Afghan resource projects but it will take years before the infrastructure is ready while security issues threaten to once again stall projects, according to state media and industry sources.
- Exclusive – China Evergrande in talks with Xiaomi consortium to sell EV unit stake – sources — Embattled Chinese property developer Evergrande Group is in talks with smartphone maker Xiaomi and Shenzhen state-backed investment firms as it looks to sell part of a 65% stake in its electric vehicle (EV) unit, three sources said.
- China’s planned anti-sanctions law for Hong Kong unsettles financial sector — Global banks and other financial institutions in Hong Kong are scrambling to find out details of China’s planned imposition of an anti-sanctions law on the city, and trying to understand how it could impact their operations in the financial hub.
Other Publications
- The Economist: China is happy to see America humbled in Afghanistan — It does not love the Taliban, but is ready to do business with them.
- The Economist: Chinese cloud giants eye South-East Asia — As the business climate worsens at home and in the West, Alibaba, Tencent and their peers seek friendlier markets.
- The Washington Post: How Chinese pressure on coronavirus origins probe shocked the WHO — and led its director to push back — A new book that details the relationship between the United States, China and the WHO shows how WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cautiously praised China in public while pressuring it in private. And it shows how the Trump administration undermined this tactic with open hostility toward China and the WHO.
- Nikkei Asia: Analysis: China begins sending signals that Xi should stay — Emphasis on ‘2021-2025’ plans suggest that 2022 isn’t the best time for change.
- Quartz: Amazon’s shows about Hong Kong expats couldn’t come at a worse time — The Hong Kong government said in a statement that Kidman was granted an exemption from quarantine for “performing designated professional work, taking into account that it is conducive to maintaining the necessary operation and development of Hong Kong’s economy.”
