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
- Australia Rethinks China Policy With Pivot to U.S. Submarines — Canberra’s new security partnership with the U.K. and Washington illustrates the sharp deterioration in diplomatic relations with Beijing.
- China Seeks to Join Pacific Trade Pact After U.S. Forms New Security Alliance — Beijing’s application to join the 11-nation trans-Pacific pact is a sign that competition with Washington for alliances is growing.
- China’s Space Station Tiangong Is Coming Together Bit by Bit — Effectively barred from the International Space Station, China has embarked on an ambitious plan to build its own Earth-orbiting habitat.
- Mark Milley Says Calls to Chinese General Were Within His Duties — Top U.S. general under fire over reports of talks with Chinese counterpart at end of Trump term.
- Universal’s New Beijing Theme Park Will Ride on U.S.-China Ties — Plans for the park date back decades, but it’s now ready to open—at a low point in U.S.-China relations.
The Financial Times
- For Biden — and America — it’s basically China from now on — If Beijing holds co-operation hostage to its demands, the world will forever be waiting for Godot.
- Ping An shares fall on fears of China Evergrande contagion — Insurer reassures investors it has no exposure to debt-wracked developer.
- Australia rejects Chinese and French criticism of submarines deal — Defence minister says Canberra needs better security technology in increasingly unstable region.
- China’s request to join transpacific pact will be judged on merit, say US allies — Beijing submits application just a day after Washington forms new military partnership.
- Big picture appeal of Chinese assets remains strong — Allure of country for investors will rise as uncertainty over the end of the US monetary policy experiment increases.
- US tries to soothe French anger over Australian naval pact — Paris furious that agreement torpedoes lucrative submarine deal with Canberra.
The New York Times
- Hong Kong Forces Tiananmen Square Group to Delete Facebook Page — The deletions were the most high-profile instance of internet censorship under the national security law.
- Latest Threat to Hong Kong’s National Security: Chocolates in Prison — Officials have suggested that imprisoned pro-democracy activists are using sweets and other items to “solicit followers” behind bars.
- Inquiry finds World Bank officials, including now-I.M.F. chief, pushed staff to inflate China data — Kristalina Georgieva, the bank’s former chief executive, who now leads the International Monetary Fund, directed staff to alter data to placate China.
- In Submarine Deal With Australia, U.S. Counters China but Enrages France — The reaction signals a widening rift among Western allies over China. French officials accused President Biden of acting like his predecessor.
Caixin
- World’s Top Solar-Panel Maker Reports Dismal Profits — Jinko Solar’s profit fell 31% in the first half, and a whopping 51.6% in the second quarter as price of raw materials spiked.
South China Morning Post
- WeChat begins to open its ‘walled garden’ to rivals by allowing links in one-to-one chats, heeding Beijing’s order — WeChat, the ubiquitous social media platform operated by Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings, on Friday started to allow links to its rivals to be shared in one-to-one chats to comply with Beijing’s new requirements on Big Tech to unblock links.
- Chinese court hears unmarried woman’s case to freeze her eggs — After almost two years, an unmarried woman suing for the right to freeze her eggs in Beijing is getting her case heard in court on Friday in a rare legal challenge against the country’s restrictions on unmarried women in reproductive health.
- Evergrande’s staunchest allies drop out as Chinese property developer’s creditworthiness deteriorates amid debt woes — Two of the property magnate Hui Ka-yan’s staunchest allies appear to be bailing out of China Evergrande Group, selling a large chunk of the developer’s stock ahead of a gathering storm and deteriorating credit ratings over US$300 billion in liabilities.
Bloomberg
- China Applies to Join Asian Trade Deal U.S. Abandoned — Beijing has applied to join an Asia-Pacific trade pact once pushed by the U.S. as a way to isolate China and solidify American dominance in the region.
- Musk Lauds Chinese Carmakers as Tesla Moves to Repair Image — Elon Musk praised Chinese automakers as “the most competitive in the world” at an online forum Friday, where the Tesla Inc. chief also touched upon data security and the nation’s “great potential” as a market for electric vehicles.
- Hong Kong Won’t Open Up Before Vaccination Hits at Least 80% — Hong Kong won’t consider shifting its zero-tolerance Covid-19 strategy to one of “living with the virus” until the vaccination rate is 80% to 90%, with its fate tied to how China approaches reopening, said a top virus adviser to the government.
Reuters
- With tighter grip, Beijing sends message to Hong Kong tycoons: fall in line — Chinese officials delivered the message in closed meetings this year amid broader efforts to bring the city to heel under a sweeping national security law and make it more “patriotic,” according to three major developers and a Hong Kong government adviser familiar with the talks.
- China’s Xi urges Afghanistan to stamp out terrorism, vows more aid — China’s President Xi Jinping urged “relevant parties” in Afghanistan to eradicate terrorism and promised to provide more help to the war-torn nation, state news agency Xinhua said on Friday.
- India tells China border troop pullback needed for better ties — India has told China that their bilateral relations will only develop when both countries pull their troops back from a confrontation on their disputed Himalayan border, the Indian foreign minister said.
Other Publications
- The Los Angeles Times: Police raids on movie screenings. Censors closing in. Hong Kong’s filmmakers fight to stay free — Police raids on movie screenings — unimaginable in Hong Kong a few years ago — are the latest reality in Beijing’s relentless suppression of the territory’s civil liberties.
- The Economist: Protesters in China besiege an indebted property developer — Angry investors have flocked to several of Evergrande’s offices.
- The Economist: The Chinese Communist Party’s model emperor — A Qing dynasty ruler is praised for pacifying China’s borderlands.
- Nikkei Asia: German elections: What’s in store for China after Merkel? — Coalition math will determine whether Beijing will face a less friendly Berlin.
- Center for Strategic and International Studies: Transparency with Chinese Characteristics: Xiaomi’s First Report — The report has significant shortcomings that make it hard to determine whether this represents a genuine effort at transparency or is just a superficial public relations bid; nevertheless, the report is still valuable in providing insights into Xiaomi’s overall approach to managing government requests for user data and its view of how to build trust with both officialdom and consumers.
- C4ADS: Party Capital: A Blueprint for National Security Due Diligence on China — A systematic analysis of Chinese state-business relations to develop a novel, operational framework for national security due diligence in China’s commercial sector.