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
- CIA Chief Burns Forms China-Focused Group in Pivot Toward Asian Rival — Spy agency has struggled to recruit spies in China; Burns cites ‘increasingly adversarial Chinese government.’
- China Would Be Able to Launch Attack on Taiwan by 2025, Island’s Defense Minister Warns — Taiwan’s military faces its most dire challenge from Beijing in decades, Chiu Kuo-cheng said after sorties by Chinese fighters and bombers.
- U.S. Trade Policy Adapts to a China That Will Never Change — Biden’s emerging China strategy doesn’t involve China, instead focuses at home and on allies.
The Financial Times
- Biden and Xi agree to hold virtual summit this year — Decision marks first sign of improving US-China relations since new administration in Washington.
- Evergrande shareholder to delist in Hong Kong as contagion hits stock — Family of tycoon Joseph Lau will take Chinese Estates private to reduce exposure to indebted developer.
- South Korea’s global battery dominance raises supply chain risks — Industry alarmed by reliance on imports, particularly from China, as electric vehicles take off.
- IMF leaves Georgieva’s fate in limbo after inconclusive meeting — Former World Bank chief doubles down on defence against claims of boosting China in rankings.
The New York Times
- C.I.A. Reorganization to Place New Focus on China — The agency will create two new mission centers, one focused on China, the other focused on emerging technology, climate change and global health.
- Biden and Xi Jinping of China Agree to Hold a Virtual Summit — The agreement is a recognition of the dangers of going a year into a presidential term without a formal meeting between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies.
Caixin
- Investors Offload Chinese Developers’ Dollar Bonds Amid Rising Anxiety About Defaults — Yields surge after Fantasia Holdings becomes the latest real estate firm to miss a bond payment in the wake of the Evergrande crisis.
- In Depth: China’s Consumer Spending May Suffer ‘Long Covid’ Contraction, Economists Warn — Slowing consumption growth may persist post-pandemic as repeated cycle of outbreaks and lockdowns tightens purse strings.
- Baidu-Backed EV-Maker WM Motor Raises $300 Million Despite String of Setbacks — Two Hong Kong-listed companies led the loss-making firm’s recent funding round.
South China Morning Post
- China’s LGBT community caught up in Xi Jinping’s widening crackdowns on big tech, education and celebrities — On August 13 last year, the organisers of Shanghai’s long-running LGBT pride festival abruptly announced the event was being cancelled indefinitely without explanation. The news came as a shock to many as the event had run successfully, albeit quietly, for 11 years.
- China willing to cooperate on digital financial rule making, central bank’s Yi Gang says — China is willing to participate in international rule making around the digitalisation of financial services to prevent anticompetitive behaviour and increase data protection for consumers, according to its top central banker.
- New law could ban insults against all Hong Kong civil servants, not just police, city leader says — One pro-Beijing lawmaker has called for the law to ban insults not just against public servants, but literally anyone.
Bloomberg
- TikTok Rival Beats Out DiDi for Roughest IPO of the Year — The three biggest money losers among large listings in 2021 are all Chinese, thanks to the country’s widening tech crackdown.
- Top Global Chipmakers Resist Biden Bid for Supply-Chain Data — A Biden administration effort to untangle global chip supply snarls is facing resistance from lawmakers and executives in Taiwan and South Korea, complicating attempts to resolve the bottlenecks hurting industries from automobiles to consumer electronics.
- Hong Kong Developers Surge on Lam’s Northern Metropolis Plan — Carrie Lam’s plans for a new metropolis in northern Hong Kong came as a big relief to investors in the city’s property giants.
- Holders of Evergrande-Linked Jumbo Fortune Bond Yet to Be Paid — Creditors have yet to receive repayment of a dollar bond they say is guaranteed by China Evergrande Group and one of its units, in what could be the firm’s first major miss on maturing notes since regulators urged the developer to avoid a near-term default.
Reuters
- Analysis: Fall in China’s $1.3 trln land sales to test local finances, economy — Land sales soared to a record 8.4 trillion yuan ($1.3 trillion) in 2020, the equivalent of Australia’s annual gross domestic product, bolstering fiscal budgets in a pandemic year.
- Biden, Xi plan U.S.-China virtual summit before year’s end, U.S. says — Both sides had described the meeting as a follow-on from President Joe Biden’s early September call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, prior to which the world’s top two economies appeared to have been locked in a stalemate.
- New U.S. China trade plan leaves industry hungry for specifics — Having waited eight months for U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai’s promised “top-to-bottom” policy review of trade with China, some U.S. industries and experts were complaining over the plan’s lack of specifics on negotiations or timing.
Other Publications
- The Washington Post: Are Biden and Xi forging a tentative U.S.-China detente? It’s complicated. — The success, or otherwise, of attempts to shelve lasting disagreements will be tested in coming months as both sides enter crucial climate talks and China fends off calls for diplomatic boycotts of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
- Politico: How little Lithuania dragged the EU into its showdown with China — The country isn’t the first to tangle with Beijing — but it’s unusual in that Vilnius has little to lose from the spat.
- Foreign Affairs: Why China Is Alienating the World — Backlash Is Building—but Beijing Can’t Seem to Recalibrate.
- Rest of World: Police influencers pushing a controversial anti-fraud app are going viral in China — Despite security concerns, the app is seeing download numbers that rival even Douyin.
