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
- Blackstone Drops $3 Billion Property Deal With Chinese Power Couple — Soho China’s founders had faced criticism over the planned sale.
- Riskier Chinese Property Bonds Suffer as Evergrande Struggles — Selloff has sharpened the distinction between companies perceived as financially stronger and those where investors have concerns.
- China Makes Sure Everyone Writes Taiwan’s Name Just So—Even a Colorado High School — No group is too small or obscure to escape the attention of Beijing bureaucrats scouring applications to attend United Nations functions.
- Biden Administration Takes Aim at China’s Industrial Subsidies — The U.S. is planning a probe into Beijing’s aid for Chinese companies, with new tariffs possible.
- Hong Kong’s Financial Ties to Mainland China Deepen as Wealth Link Launches — Cross-border investment program for individuals is part of Xi Jinping’s plans to more closely integrate Greater Bay Area region.
The Financial Times
- Beijing to break up Ant’s Alipay and force creation of separate loans app — Chinese fintech will turn over user data to new joint venture partly owned by state.
- Soho China shares plunge 40% after Blackstone deal collapses — Failure to gain Beijing’s approval turns spotlight on property group’s colourful founders.
- Active investors’ interest in the Chinese tech trade fades — Alibaba and Tencent fall out of fashion.
- White House officials consider probe into China’s industrial subsidies — Discussions could lead to new round of punitive tariffs.
- ‘No rule of law’: investors divided over Chinese markets — Regulatory stings scare off some managers, but others hunt for opportunities in vast economy.
- Washington risks Beijing ire over proposal to rename Taiwan’s US office — China says it ‘firmly opposes’ any American official interaction with Taipei.
- Blackstone drops $3bn takeover of property developer Soho China — US private equity group backs out after Beijing antitrust review drags on.
The New York Times
- China’s Fujian Province Reports Delta Outbreak — The 22 new local infections in Fujian Province are the most in China a month, adding to calls for Beijing to rethink its zero-Covid strategy.
- Why Evergrande’s Debt Problems Threaten China — The real estate developer Evergrande once binged on debt. Now the music has stopped, investors are panicking and experts are warning of an imminent failure.
Caixin
- Bankrupt HNA Secures Strategic Investors for Airline, Airport Businesses — As part of court-approved restructuring, the conglomerate will bring in two state-backed companies.
- Soho China’s Shares Plummet After Blackstone Abandons $3 Billion Takeover — The failed bid has fueled uncertainty about the prominent propery developer’s future.
- Cover Story: The Rapid Fall of China’s Most Famous Corporate Raider — Since the failed Vanke bid, Baoneng Investment Group is now $31 billion in debt after forays into cars and mobile phones fell short.
- Citing Competition Campaign, Shanghai Judge Says Hiding Negative Search Results Is Illegal — Ruling published by local court says use of suppression service to bury negative content breached unfair competition rules.
South China Morning Post
- China’s former central banker blasts venture capital for fanning ‘winner takes all’ in digital economy — China should reflect on the growth model of its digital economy, where companies backed by venture capital often pursue a winner-take-all strategy by burning cash to squeeze out rivals, China’s former central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said.
- Alibaba elaborates on how it will use its 100 billion yuan ‘common prosperity’ fund – pointing to ‘high quality growth’ for all — Alibaba wants to build a ‘common prosperity model’ in Zhejiang by 2025, said Simon Hu, head of Alibaba’s public welfare group.
- Ericsson to close major research centre in Nanjing amid shrinking 5G market share in China — Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson will shut down one of its five research centres in China, as the company rapidly loses share to domestic players such as Huawei Technologies Co in China’s 5G market.
- Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam hints at government restructuring, new bureaus on land, cultural issues — Chief executive tells a consultation session the two issues are ones she ‘cannot avoid’ in her coming policy address.
Bloomberg
- Evergrande Crisis Escalates as Protests Break Out in China — China Evergrande Group is facing mounting protests by homebuyers, retail investors and even its own employees, raising the stakes for authorities in Beijing as they try to prevent the property giant’s debt crisis from sparking social unrest.
- China Has ‘Too Many’ EV Manufacturers; M&A to Be Encouraged — China has vowed to consolidate the country’s electric vehicle industry after a decade-long nurturing of the sector led to the emergence of too many players, some of which are barely viable.
- Chinese Firm Buys Canada mRNA Vaccine Tech in $500 Million Deal — Chinese biopharma firm Everest Medicines Ltd. will license an mRNA Covid-19 vaccine from Canada’s Providence Therapeutics Holdings Inc.
- China’s Operation Fox Hunt for Dissidents Includes U.S. and Europe — Operations Fox Hunt and Skynet target Beijing’s critics wherever they may go.
Reuters
- Analysis – As West ponders aid for Afghanistan, China and Pakistan quick to provide relief — As international donors gather in Geneva on Monday to discuss humanitarian relief for Afghanistan under Taliban rule, neighbours China and Pakistan have already reached out with aid and discussions of future assistance.
- China’s Wang Yi offers aid and vaccines to ally Cambodia — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday pledged $270 million in aid and three million more COVID-19 vaccine doses to Cambodia, one of Beijing’s closest allies in Southeast Asia, officials said.
Other Publications
- The Washington Post: Meet the new China strategy, same as the old China strategy — A prebuttal of the Biden administration’s misbegotten trade policy toward China.
- The Washington Post: American lawyer imprisoned in Hong Kong speaks out about his treatment — Soon after his transfer to the maximum-security Stanley Prison in July, guards approached Samuel Bickett with a stack of letters written by people he had never met.
- Nikkei Asia: China tells Tencent, Alibaba and peers to stop blocking each other’s links — Beijing’s latest step aimed at ending ‘walled gardens’ of online tech giants
- Nikkei Asia: South Koreans sour on China ahead of Wang Yi visit — Growing anti-Beijing sentiment adds wrinkle to already complicated relationship.
- Nikkei Asia: Shedding new light on a 50-year-old Chinese mystery — Yu Ruxin takes a fresh look at the death of Mao’s former designated heir Lin Biao.
