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 Plans to Ban U.S. IPOs for Data-Heavy Tech Firms — China’s stock regulator plans to propose new rules that could thwart internet companies’ plans to list in the U.S.
- Kerry to Press China to Stop Financing Coal-Fired Energy Projects — Biden’s climate envoy plans to push for a declaration during a trip next week, but Beijing doesn’t want to be seen as caving to Western pressure.
- Covid-19 Quarantine Rules Threaten Hong Kong’s Role as Finance Hub, Businesses Say — Determined to keep cases near zero, city requires arrivals from about two dozen countries to isolate in a hotel for three weeks.
The Financial Times
- Chinese entertainment stocks: ban on celebrity ranking leaves fan culture idle — Lucrative celebrity merchandise market has become Beijing’s latest business crackdown target.
- China’s top court takes aim at ‘996’ overtime culture in blow to tech groups — Authorities also issue draft regulations on the algorithms used by tech companies to recommend content.
- Ant-controlled fund invested in groups linked to detained Chinese official — Companies were established by relatives of Hangzhou party secretary who was arrested for alleged corruption.
- Ping An pledges to be more prudent after China Fortune Land exposure — Chinese insurer’s first-half profits fall after $3.2bn hit on investment in property developer.
The New York Times
- Pushing the Limits Paid Off for Didi, Until China Cracked Down — The ride-hailing giant learned to thrive in legal gray areas while Beijing mostly looked the other way. Now the government is paying attention.
- China’s Celebrity Culture Is Raucous. The Authorities Want to Change That. — The Communist Party has declared war on idol worship, part of a broader crackdown on what it sees as toxic celebrity culture that is poisoning the minds of the country’s youth.
Caixin
- Troubled Chinese Star Ordered to Pay $46 Million for Tax Evasion — Authorities penalize actress Zheng Shuang for failing to declare true taxable income in the latest case in a crackdown on the domestic entertainment industry.
- Record Number of Chinese Tech, Media and Telecom Companies List Overseas in First Half — Nearly three dozen of the 78 ‘TMT’ firms that listed chose to do so outside the Chinese mainland, but looming regulatory headwinds may change this trend.
South China Morning Post
- Beijing drafts new rules to tame recommendation algorithms in latest push to rein in Big Tech — China’s internet watchdog has drafted a new regulation to tame “internet service recommendation algorithms”, which are the fundamental technology behind the country’s popular apps, marking the latest move by Beijing to tighten controls on Big Tech online content providers, such as ByteDance and Tencent Holdings.
- Big Tech’s excessive 996 overwork culture in China is illegal without extra compensation, top court reminds employers — China’s top court and labour ministry issued a warning about violations of the country’s labour law that signals potential trouble for Big Tech firms relying on the excessive overwork culture known as 996.
- China charges former top corruption inspector with taking US$71 million in bribes — A former senior inspector at China’s top anti-corruption agency has been charged with accepting 460 million yuan (US$71 million) in bribes.
- No explanation as China’s billionaire actress Zhao Wei blacklisted from Chinese internet — China’s billionaire actress Zhao Wei appears to have been blacklisted by the government, and her entire internet presence was scrubbed for unknown reasons on Thursday evening.
Bloomberg
- New China Vaccine Shows 82% Effectiveness Against Serious Covid — A vaccine from China’s Chongqing Zhifei Biological Products Co. showed 82% effectiveness against serious Covid-19 infections, boosting the country’s efforts to immunize its vast population.
- China Plans Control of Tech Algorithms U.S. Can Only Dream Of — Chinese regulators are seeking to implement far-reaching rules about the algorithms technology companies use to recommend videos and other content, claiming authority over internet services that governments like the U.S. have struggled to regulate.
- Evergrande Fire Sale Just Getting Started as Debt Woes Mount — Under mounting pressure from financial regulators to shore up its finances, China Evergrande Group is poised to dump more of its sprawling empire.
Reuters
- Exclusive – Congo reviewing $6 billion mining deal with Chinese investors – Finance Minister — Democratic Republic of Congo’s government is reviewing its $6 billion “infrastructure-for-minerals” deal with Chinese investors as part of a broader examination of mining contracts, Finance Minister Nicolas Kazadi told Reuters.
- Tianjin asks govt firms to move data out of Alibaba, Tencent clouds – document — The Chinese city of Tianjin has asked municipally controlled companies to migrate their data from private sector operators like Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings to a state-backed cloud system by next year, according to a document seen by Reuters.
- China cracks down on ‘chaotic’ celebrity fan culture after scandals — China cracked down on what it described as a “chaotic” celebrity fan culture on Friday, barring platforms from publishing popularity lists and regulating the sale of fan merchandise after a series of controversies involving artists.
Other Publications
- The Intercept: Chinese Police Kept Buying Cellebrite Phone Crackers After Cellebrite Said It Ended Sales — The Israeli company purportedly left China last year. The subsequent sales of its products there could cloud its impending IPO.
- The Economist: China would rather be feared than defied — Nationalist outrage has often served China well over the years, but that may be changing.
- The Economist: Research centres promoting Xi Jinping’s ideas are proliferating — When will his philosophy get a snappier official name?
- Nikkei Asia: Vote on US ‘China bill’ recedes to fall or beyond — Aid for chip industry in focus as House and Senate struggle to reconcile legislation.
- Nikkei Asia: ‘Nationalist consumption’ boosts Chinese fashion industry — Domestic brands lure novelty-seeking young as international rivals retreat.