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’s Factory-Gate Prices Rise at Record Pace — Surging prices of coal and other commodities push up inflation, dimming hope it will ease globally in the near term.
- WHO Creates New Team to Study Covid-19 Origins — World Health Organization officials describe a ‘last chance’ to determine how pandemic began.
- Metals Prices Surge After Gas Crunch Crimps Output — Higher energy bills prompt smelters to cut back on zinc and aluminum production.
The Financial Times
- China factory gate prices rise at fastest rate since 1995 — Producer price index climbs 10.7% cent in September on a year earlier as energy crunch tightens.
- Evergrande crisis leaves Chinese developers shut out of global debt markets — Just one dollar bond sold since heavily indebted company’s missed payment shook markets.
The New York Times
- Why the U.N.’s Biodiversity Conference Is So Important — Countries are gathering in an effort to stop a biodiversity collapse that scientists say could equal climate change as an existential crisis.
- Why Does Everyone Suddenly Care About Supply Chains? — The pandemic showed how vulnerable we are to a globalized economic system. But an entirely domestic industrial policy may actually backfire.
- W.H.O Names Advisory Group to Study Origin of Covid Pandemic — The group includes scientists from 26 countries, a reflection of the W.H.O.’s effort to amass widespread international support for the work.
Caixin
- Battery-Grade Lithium Price Jumps More Than Fourfold to Hit New Record — As supply stagnates and demand for electric cars booms, some smaller players are being squeezed.
- Rising Energy Costs Send China’s Factory Inflation to Record High — PPI grew 10.7% in September due in large part to skyrocketing coal prices.
- Overseas Drive Pays Off as China’s Auto Exports More Than Double — Vehicle shipments jumped 120% to 1.36 million in first nine months of the year, industry group says.
South China Morning Post
- China’s Li Keqiang acknowledges slowing economic growth, but says Beijing has the ‘tools’ to cope with headwinds — China has “adequate tools” to tackle the economic challenges facing the country, including the nation’s current power crisis and high commodity prices, Premier Li Keqiang said on Thursday.
- Chinese education firm OneSmart faces demands for refunds after closing its off-campus tutoring activities nationwide — New York-listed OneSmart International Education Group has closed all of its off-campus tutoring programmes and learning centres across China, sparking outrage from angry parents who are demanding refunds.
- TikTok owner ByteDance’s valuation reaches US$400 billion in anonymous trades posted online as IPO remains elusive — TikTok owner ByteDance has seen a moderate rise in its valuation in recent months, according to anonymous private equity trades posted online, which comes after the company shelved plans for an initial public offering and founder Zhang Yiming announced that he would step down as CEO earlier this year.
Bloomberg
- Kyle Bass’s Disastrous Hong Kong Short Got Bannon-Linked Cash — A recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission case reveals how Kyle Bass’s bet against the Hong Kong dollar has fizzled: He’s lost big, ensnaring some investors who funded his short through what the regulator says was an illicit stock offering.
- China’s Chastening Over Coal Dependency Will Boost Clean Energy — The energy crisis is chastening governments around the world, not least in China. Record coal prices have helped propel factory inflation there to a 26-year high and officials have had to promise that homes will be kept warm this winter come what may.
- Chinese Workers Reveal Hours Online as Backlash to 996 Grows — A group of private sector employees in China have begun an online campaign to gather their working hours in a protest against the excessive work culture in the country.
Reuters
- Winter chill keeps China’s coal prices high, power crunch stokes inflation — China coal prices held near record highs on Thursday as cold weather swept into the country’s north and power plants stocked up on the fuel to ease an energy crunch that is fuelling unprecedented factory gate inflation.
- Merkel warns of ‘centrifugal forces’ in EU, calls for unity — “Let’s not kid ourselves: Centrifugal forces have been at work in the EU for several years now,” Merkel said, saying that such dividing powers arise when the EU fails to fulfil its promises and social and economic differences are allowed to grow too large.
Other Publications
- The Economist: The first big energy shock of the green era — There are grave problems with the transition to clean energy power
- The Economist: Chinese companies suffer an intense cash crunch in offshore bond markets — Spreads on junk bonds are at their highest ever
- Palladium Magazine: The Triumph and Terror of Wang Huning — Most analysis has focused on one man: Xi and his seemingly endless personal obsession with political control. The overlooked answer, however, is that this is indeed the culmination of decades of thinking and planning by a very powerful man—but that man is not Xi Jinping.
- Nikkei Asia: Analysis: The man who knew too much of Xi’s power plays is out — Ex-minister Fu Zhenghua was the engine behind president’s anti-corruption drive
- Brookings: How are people feeling in the “most dangerous place on Earth”? — Strategic discussions on the potential for conflict leave out crucial voices in the matter: do people on Taiwan share those concerns about imminent military conflict?
- Protocol: Burned out Chinese tech workers start viral online campaign — The ‘996’ schedule is not legal, but employers are keeping it up anyway. Workers have had enough.
- Defense One: How China Is Planning For a Tech Decoupling — PLA strategists are already working on counters to anticipated U.S. moves.
