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 Releases Two U.S. Citizens Blocked From Leaving Since 2018 — Exit from China of Victor Liu and Cynthia Liu coincided with U.S. deal that freed Huawei executive.
- Huawei Executive’s Return to China: How the Deal Came Off — Meng Wanzhou’s shift paved way for U.S. prosecutors to get an acknowledgment of wrongdoing—and for Canada to get two of its citizens out of China.
- China Power Outages Pose New Threat to Supplies of Chips and Other Goods — Coal shortages and efforts to control energy consumption are making it harder for Chinese factories to operate.
- In China, Even Jump-Rope is Competitive—So Parents Pay for Lessons — Grade-school students nationwide must pass an annual rope-skipping exam, costing children who can’t easily jump and twirl rope at the same time.
- Sunac Leads Rebound in Chinese Property Stocks — China’s central bank says it wants healthy development of property market.
The Financial Times
- US pushes China trade despite ‘complicated relationship’ — Gina Raimondo seeks access for American companies even as tensions with Beijing rise.
- Chinese developer Sunac seeks to avoid Evergrande contagion — Hong Kong-listed group denies asking government for liquidity relief and buys back $34m of its bonds.
- China real estate/Sunac: flattering comparisons with Evergrande are not enough — The Chinese developer, dealing with reports of a leaked memo, says business is normal but investors should pay close attention.
The New York Times
- American Siblings Barred From Leaving China for 3 Years Return to U.S. — Their release coincided with an agreement on Friday that cleared the way for a senior executive of Huawei Technologies, the Chinese telecommunications giant, to return to China.
- China Power Outages Close Factories and Threaten Growth — High demand and soaring energy prices have forced some factories to shut down, adding further problems for already snarled global supply chains.
- China’s Abortion Vow Sparks Worries About Limits — The short mention in a sweeping health plan lacked specifics, but it set off concerns in a country with a history of intrusive reproductive policies.
Caixin
- In Depth: How Evergrande’s Founder Played the Capital Markets — Hui Ka Yan had a knack for creating hype that drove the debt-ridden developer to a stratospheric valuation, allowing it to borrow ever larger amounts.
- HNA Seeks to Repay Less Than Half of Debt Claims Sought Against Airline Unit — Creditors want 400 billion yuan from financially troubled Hainan Airlines, but now they will be asked to accept far less.
- What’s Behind China’s Regional Power Outages — A coal shortage and a resurgent economy are forcing electricity rationing to industry and households alike.
South China Morning Post
- Alibaba opens up its ‘walled garden’ to Tencent’s WeChat Pay, heeding Beijing’s order — Alibaba Group Holding has started to allow consumers to use WeChat Pay on a number of its platforms amid the Chinese government’s major push to encourage competition and curb monopolistic behaviour among Big Tech.
- China’s US trade-deal purchases remain more than 30 per cent short of target, PIIE report says — China remained on course to be more than 30 per cent short of its 2021 commitments under the phase-one trade deal with the United States with four months left.
- China’s raid on its Wall Street to keep many bankers awake at night as Beijing probes top institutions — Disciplinary watchdog will send inspectors into China’s top 25 financial institutions in the coming weeks to look for signs of corruption, negligence and disloyalty.
- Microsoft CEO says company’s failed TikTok deal ‘strangest thing I’ve worked on’ — Microsoft Corp chief executive Satya Nadella said the company’s bid last year to acquire the US assets of hit short video-sharing app TikTok was the “strangest thing I’ve ever worked on”.
Bloomberg
- HSBC CEO Noel Quinn Is Making a Big Bet on China — A low-key leader tries to turn around an icon of Britain’s imperial past.
- Evergrande Bond Bills Are Piling Up as Latest Coupon Comes Due — China Evergrande Group is facing another bond interest payment after giving no sign that it had paid a separate one last week, as its deepening debt crisis looms over global markets.
- Creditors Said to Claim Evergrande on Hook for Bond Due Sunday — Some holders of a bond issued by a company called Jumbo Fortune Enterprises are forming a committee to press their claims in the event of a default because they maintain China Evergrande Group is a guarantor of the debt, according to people familiar with the plans.
- Morgan Stanley’s Christianson to Step Down as APAC Co-CEO — Morgan Stanley’s Wei Christianson, who’s overseen its operations in China longer than any of her counterparts at a major U.S. bank, plans to step down at the end of the year.
Reuters
- China’s Xi calls for nurturing of patriotic scientists — President Xi Jinping wants to increase the talent pool of scientists and intellectuals in China who have the “correct political inclination” and are imbued with patriotic feelings to serve their nation, state news agency Xinhua said on Tuesday.
- WHO chief expects collaboration of China, others on virus origins follow-up — The head of the World Health Organization said on Tuesday that he expected all countries, including China, to collaborate in the second phase of a probe into the origins of the coronavirus after an initial mission to China.
Other Publications
- Politico: Biden’s solar dilemma: Promote domestic manufacturing — or climate goals — Tariffs and trade restrictions on imported solar panels could curtail deployment of clean energy desperately needed to hit Biden’s climate goals.
- Foreign Policy: China Is Choking Civil Society at the United Nations — The Chinese government is using every means at its disposal to do battle with NGOs.
- Rest of World: “Mini-programs” took over Chinese platforms. Now they’re being used to contact trace — and undermine user privacy. — The programs track where you travel, shop, and even eat dumplings.
- Quartz: Evergrande, Ever Given: Why are so many Chinese-language brands prefixed “Ever”? — With that word, “you can tell a very big story about how the Chinese political and cultural systems have shifted from the imperial era to today.”