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
- Goldman Sachs Cleared to Own All of China Unit — U.S. bank has operated a Chinese joint venture for 17 years.
- China Faces Slower Growth Path as It Pursues Longer-Term Reforms — Beijing’s attempts to tackle festering issues in its economy are adding to economic concerns as the pandemic bounceback fades.
- Global Investors Gain a New Way to Bet on Stocks in China — Hong Kong’s stock exchange launches trading of futures tied to a MSCI index of 50 stocks listed in Shanghai or Shenzhen.
- Alibaba Faces New Threat: an Evolving Chinese Shopper — E-commerce company, already under regulatory scrutiny, is losing market share as consumers shift from targeted product searches to browsing and interaction.
- China’s Third-Quarter Economic Growth Slows Sharply to 4.9% — Power shortages and supply-chain problems added to the impact from Beijing’s efforts to rein in the real estate and technology sectors.
The Financial Times
- China tests new space capability with hypersonic missile — Launch in August of nuclear-capable rocket that circled the globe took US intelligence by surprise.
- Xi Jinping undeterred from structural shifts despite China’s economic slowdown — Weak third-quarter GDP growth will divert president from long-term changes, analysts say.
- US investment drive to take on China in Latin America — Initiative will fund infrastructure in effort to compete with Beijing’s growing influence in region.
- Nato to expand focus to counter rising China — Secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg reveals significant broadening of western alliance’s objectives to include Beijing.
- Sustainable investors ponder Chinese opportunities — The country’s net zero ambition is attractive, its human rights record less so.
- China’s energy crisis threatens lengthy disruption to global supply chain — Buyers in Europe and US must wait longer for supplies as factories are forced to slash operating capacity.
The New York Times
- Goldman Sachs Wins Approval to Buy Out Partner in China — The move will give the Wall Street giant complete ownership over its Chinese investment banking operations.
- China’s GDP Growth Slows as Property and Energy Take a Toll — Growth of 4.9 percent shows the country’s huge industrial sector has run into trouble. But exports and services are looking strong.
- Washington Hears Echoes of the ’50s and Worries: Is This a Cold War With China? — Incursions into Taiwan’s air zone, a space launch and what looked like a prisoner swap raise a question that is about more than just semantics. It could signal a dangerous new mind-set.
- China’s Scripted Homicides Become a Popular Pastime — “Scripted homicide” clubs have opened around the country as young people look for ways to escape and connect. Naturally, the government has questions.
Caixin
- Cover Story: How China’s Housing Market Landed in the Deep Freeze — Even as the nation faces a housing shortage, the government is sticking with tough policies to prevent overheating, resulting in plunging house sales and values.
- Exclusive: Alibaba Set to Launch Its Own Cloud Server Chip — Alibaba Cloud’s custom-designed chip, which is based on Softbank’s ARM architecture, seen as a competitive response to the perceived technology advantage of rival Amazon Web Services’ own line of ARM-based chips.
- Suning.com Warns of Up to $1.2 Billion Net Loss on Plunging Revenue — The company said it struggled to maintain adequate inventories in first three months, denting revenue.
South China Morning Post
- Tencent’s China charity drive shows poorest provinces have the smallest number of groups fundraising for them — China’s poorest provinces have the smallest number of public charities working for them while some of the richest regions are home to the nation’s biggest fund-raising organisations, according to data from Tencent’s 99 Giving Day.
- Alibaba’s global sales platform woos Chinese merchants kicked out of Amazon — AliExpress, the global marketplace operated by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, is expanding its presence in the trading hub of Shenzhen, where a rapidly growing community of cross-border merchants suffered a recent crackdown by Amazon that saw thousands of online stores closed.
- Is this China’s ‘Great Resignation’? Freelancers find both hope and uncertainty in bid to escape 9-to-5 grind — Intense pressure, long working hours and relatively low wages have convinced millions to embrace ‘flexible employment’ and freelancing, often in a gap between full-time work.
Bloomberg
- China Says ‘Hypersonic’ Object Put Into Orbit Was Space Vehicle — China said the mystery object launched into space earlier this year was a reusable space vehicle, describing a more innocuous incident than a report over the weekend that Beijing sent a hypersonic missile into orbit.
- China Said to Weigh Opening Tencent, ByteDance Content to Search — China is considering asking media companies from Tencent Holdings Ltd. to ByteDance Ltd. to let rivals access and display their content in search results, a move that could further eradicate online barriers and shake up the internet advertising arena.
- China Dental Stock Sinks Further After Chairman Outburst — An around 23% plunge over just three sessions in one of China’s most prominent health care stocks has apparently made the company’s chief lose his calm.
- Early Freeze Across China Adds to the Nation’s Energy Crisis — Plunging temperatures across parts of China have sparked an early start to the winter heating season, likely lifting power demand and intensifying the nation’s energy crisis.
Reuters
- China property shares stumble on tax worry, signs of weakness — Chinese property shares fell on Monday, as Beijing pushed ahead with plans for a property tax and amid fresh signs of weakening in the real estate market.
- China drafts law to punish parents for children’s bad behaviour — China’s parliament will consider legislation to punish parents if their young children exhibit “very bad behaviour” or commit crimes.
- ‘Cement mountain’: China’s rocky road on biodiversity beyond rosy UN summit — China used a five-day United Nations biodiversity conference in Kunming to celebrate its achievements in protecting habitats and improving its environmental record. Despite progress, a rift remains between rhetoric and reality.
Other Publications
- The Atlantic: China’s American Surveillance State — With generous state support at home and low-cost sales abroad, Hikvision has become a world heavyweight.
- Associated Press: New crew docks at China’s first permanent space station — The astronauts, two men and a woman, were seen floating around the module before speaking via a live-streamed video.
- Associated Press: University offers to rehire prof acquitted of ties to China — The University of Tennessee at Knoxville has offered to reinstate a professor who was acquitted of federal charges that had accused him of hiding his relationship with a Chinese university while receiving NASA research grants, a letter obtained by the Knoxville News Sentinel says.
- Foreign Policy: In U.S.-China Standoff, Is America a Reliable Ally? — Sowing doubts about Washington is a potent weapon for Beijing. But U.S. strategy in Asia remains intact.
