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
- How Evergrande Grew and Grew, Despite Years of Red Flags — Chinese property company’s path to crisis came with issues underestimated by investors.
- U.S. Set Out to Hobble China’s Huawei, and So It Has — Big maker of telecom gear and phones is short of advanced chips and facing customers who heed sanctions or doubt company’s technical reliability.
- China Fines Meituan $533.6 Million for Antimonopoly Violation — Regulator finds Meituan effectively forced merchants to sell exclusively on its platform.
- U.S. Troops Have Been Deployed in Taiwan for at Least a Year — Small presence of Americans secretly training local forces marks concern over China’s yearslong military buildup and recent moves.
- After Dollar-Bond Default, Chinese Developer Fantasia Says It Will Fix Its Finances — Prices of Fantasia’s yuan-denominated bonds plummeted when they resumed trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
The Financial Times
- Meituan fined $530m for antitrust abuse — Second major Chinese tech company to be investigated for antitrust receives much lower fine than Alibaba.
- US special forces secretly train Taiwan’s military — American troops have been helping country prepare for possible attack by China.
- China orders coal miners to boost output to counter energy crunch — Move to keep factories running risks undermining President Xi Jinping’s climate promises.
- Evergrande chair’s wealth under scrutiny as developer faces default — Hui Ka Yan who was once the embodiment of success, now faces a stunning reversal of fortunes.
The New York Times
- Luo Changping Detained in China After Criticizing ‘The Battle at Lake Changjin’ — The police arrested Luo Changping on Thursday, two days after he questioned China’s role in the Korean War, the subject of China’s box office hit “The Battle at Lake Changjin.”
- China Fines Meituan $530 Million in Second Tech Antitrust Case — The $530 million fine is Beijing’s second major penalty this year against an internet company accused of monopolistic practices.
- China’s Power Crunch Exposes Tensions Ahead of Key U.N. Climate Summit — Keeping global temperatures from dangerous levels means China must pivot away from coal immediately. Its soaring energy demand and rolling blackouts mean it probably won’t.
Caixin
- China’s Tourism Spending Over National Day Holiday Stayed Below Pre-Pandemic Level — Consumers spent 5% less than last year, and two-fifths less than in 2019, according to official data.
- Inner Mongolia Coal Mines Ordered to Boost Production by 55% — Authorities tell 72 producers to increase annual output amid severe power shortages caused in part by high prices for the fossil fuel.
South China Morning Post
- China’s Xinjiang faces hidden risk from debt-heavy XPCC, with spending tipped to rise after US withdrawal from Afghanistan — This is the fourth in a series of stories looking at China’s Xinjiang province and how the far-western region is coping economically under a series of US sanctions over alleged human rights violations and the widespread use of forced labour.
- China’s bid to ‘weaponise trade’ crumbles as it turns to Australia for cotton, copper despite import ban — China has imported US$30 million worth of Australian copper concentrate and increased purchases of cotton from the country amid international sanctions over Xinjiang, despite unofficially banning the products in November last year, Chinese trade data shows.
- China fines Meituan less-than-expected US$530 million for monopolistic behaviour, ending five-month antitrust probe — China slapped on-demand local services provider Meituan with a 3.44 billion yuan (US$533 million) fine on Friday for abusing its dominant market position through its “pick one from two” practice, putting an end to the government’s five-month antitrust investigation.
- China power crisis forces ‘serious’ Beijing to order top coal producer to increase output — Chinese officials ordered more than 70 mines in Inner Mongolia to ramp up coal production by nearly 100 million tonnes as the country battles its worst power crunch and coal shortages in years.
Bloomberg
- U.S. Nuclear Sub Hits Mystery Object in South China Sea; 11 Hurt — A U.S. nuclear-powered attack submarine struck an object while submerged in international waters in the Indo-Pacific region last week, the Navy said, adding that no life-threatening injuries were reported.
- China Chip Firm Horizon Said to Eye Moving U.S. IPO to Hong Kong — Chinese artificial intelligence-chip startup Horizon Robotics Inc. is considering shifting its potential U.S. initial public offering to Hong Kong in the wake of Beijing’s increasing scrutiny of overseas listings, according to people familiar with the matter.
- AmCham Says Lobbying Hong Kong to Reopen Like ‘Talking to Wall’ — U.S. businesses say lobbying Hong Kong’s government about reopening its borders with the rest of the world has been fruitless, a sign of frustration with the city’s “Covid Zero” strategy that could undermine the city’s future as a global financial hub.
Reuters
- Exclusive: US electronics firm struck deal to transport and hire Uyghur workers — It is the first confirmed instance of an American company participating in a transfer program described by some rights groups as forced labor.
- Analysis: China protest sets stage for U.N. plane emissions debate — Commercial aviation’s key players are backing a target of net zero emissions by 2050, but high costs and opposition from China remain obstacles toward reaching a global climate goal at a United Nations aviation meeting next fall.
Other Publications
- The Economist: A Chinese vision of free trade — China’s motives for joining the CPTPP range from benign to worrying.
- Nikkei Asia: China power outages spur new wave of supply chain shifts — Apple suppliers and others look overseas to reduce risks of ‘overcentralization.’
- Foreign Policy: The Real Reasons Behind China’s Energy Crisis —Cheap pricing and too much coal are leaving Chinese in the dark.
- Hong Kong Free Press: University of Hong Kong orders removal of Tiananmen Massacre statue — The eight-metre tall harrowing monument to those killed by the military during the bloody crackdown has stood on the campus for 24 years.
