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 Xi Jinping Is Rewriting China’s History to Put Himself at the Center — The full text of a resolution on the Communist Party’s 100-year history portrays the Chinese leader as uniquely suited to continue Mao’s revolutionary project.
- U.S. Should Restrict Investment in China Due to Security Concerns, Panel Says — Warnings from a commission convened by Congress come after Biden and Xi sought to ease tensions.
- China, U.S. to Ease Limits on One Another’s Journalists — Beijing ejected U.S. reporters from The Wall Street Journal, other newspapers in 2020; Trump administration limited China outlets’ personnel.
- WTA Expresses New Concern Over Safety of China’s Peng Shuai Following Email — Chinese state media published screenshot of what it called an email from tennis star that says ’everything is fine’ amid sexual-assault allegations.
- U.S. Pushes Arms-Control Talks as China’s Nuclear Arsenal Grows — Concerns that Beijing is developing hypersonic missiles and building nuclear silos have sparked alarm in Washington.
- China Evergrande to Shed Stake in Tencent-Backed Venture for $273 Million — Developer agrees to unload its remaining 18% stake in HengTen Networks Group at a substantial discount.
- China’s Largest Bad-Debt Manager, Huarong, to Raise $6.5 Billion in State-Led Bailout — Citic Group to become the asset manager’s largest owner after Finance Ministry.
- Alibaba Posts Lower Profit Due to Investment Losses, Cuts Revenue Guidance — Chinese e-commerce company says profit also hit by higher investments in key strategic areas.
The Financial Times
- WTA says it is still unable to locate Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai — Player has not been seen since sexual assault allegations against government official surfaced
The New York Times
- Furor Over Peng Shuai’s #Metoo Accusation Challenges China — The tennis world is outraged over the latest twist in a star player’s complaint of assault and abrupt disappearance from public life.
Caixin
- Allianz Cleared to Create China’s First Wholly Foreign-Owned Life Insurer — After regulatory approval, German insurance giant is set to buy out Citic’s 49% of their joint venture, reflecting opening-up policies and China-EU investment accord.
- Huarong Inks $6.6 Billion of Share Sales to Five Strategic Investors — Accords advance restructuring to rescue debt-laden state-owned asset manager from the verge of collapse.
- China Approves Boeing’s Proposed Fixes for 737 Max — Regulator has expressed satisfaction with the U.S. company’s proposed design changes for the model, which was grounded after two fatal crashes.
- Evergrande Chief Borrows $105 Million Against Hong Kong Properties — Hui Ka Yan puts up two more luxury houses as collateral in the property giant’s ongoing struggle to keep up with interest payments.
South China Morning Post
- Huawei doubles down on cloud services in Asia as smartphone business takes battering from US sanctions — Huawei Technologies Co is doubling down on its cloud services in Southeast Asia, launching a new “availability zone” in Thailand as the Chinese telecoms giant pivots to businesses less dependent on semiconductors.
- Taiwan opens de facto embassy in Lithuania, despite angry reaction earlier from Beijing — Taiwan opened a de facto embassy in Lithuania on Thursday, in a diplomatic breakthrough for the self-ruled island as it brushed aside Beijing’s strong opposition to the move.
- New Chinese Covid-19 antibody treatment shows promise, as China races to find a cure — An experimental Covid-19 antibody treatment authorised for compassionate use at a Beijing hospital has delivered promising results, state media reported.
- Alibaba net income plummets 87 per cent, with first adjusted profit decline in more than five years — E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding reported an 87 per cent year-on-year decline in net income for the September quarter, missing expectations as the company invested more in its young business.
Bloomberg
- Alibaba Outlook Disappoints After China’s Slowdown Hurt Sales — Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. outlook for fiscal 2022 revenue fell short of estimates after intensifying competition and new coronavirus outbreaks compounded regulatory headwinds for China’s top e-commerce firm.
- Jack Ma’s Ant Group Sees Profit Rise 39% on Investments — Ant Group Co.’s profit rose an estimated 39% in the June quarter, attributed to a gain in investments as billionaire Jack Ma’s fintech giant grapples with the impact of China’s rapidly shifting rules for private enterprise.
- Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Retail Chain to Exit City in 2022 — A Hong Kong retail chain that backed the pro-democracy movement will exit the city, citing a pressure campaign by the mainland and local authorities amid a broad crackdown on dissent in the former British colony.
- The White Knights Bailing Out China’s Distressed Companies Aren’t Generous — Huarong and Tsinghua Unigroup seem to be benefiting from rescues, but there’s less to the deals than meets the eye.
Reuters
- Monkey-brain study with link to China’s military roils top European university — A Chinese professor at the University of Copenhagen conducted genetic research with the Chinese military without disclosing the connection, the university told Reuters, in the latest example of how China’s pursuit of military-civilian technology is tapping into Western academia in the strategically sensitive area of biotechnology.
- Taiwan opens office in Lithuania, brushing aside China opposition — Taiwan opened a de facto embassy in Lithuania on Thursday in a diplomatic breakthrough for the Chinese-claimed island, brushing aside Beijing’s strong opposition to the move.
- China has no plans to replace foreign technology, says foreign ministry — China has no plans to replace foreign technology, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Thursday, in response to a media report which said China was accelerating efforts to replace U.S. technology.
Other Publications
- Associated Press: The AP Interview: Meng Hongwei’s wife slams ‘monster’ China — Meng Hongwei, the former Interpol president, has now vanished into China’s sprawling penal system, purged in a stunning fall from grace. And his wife is alone with their twin boys in France, a political refugee under round-the-clock French police protection following what she suspects was an attempt by Chinese agents to kidnap and deliver them to an uncertain fate.
- Foreign Policy: Biden Struggles to Stick to the Script on Taiwan — Not for the first time, the U.S. president misspoke about the island at the center of U.S.-China tensions.
- Protocol: Chinese Big Tech’s new fear: crowdsourced, sharable docs — Tech workers are creatively using sharable files to fight exploitation.
- Los Angeles Times: Where is Peng Shuai? A #MeToo case pits women’s tennis against Chinese censorship — What began as a confrontation between feminism and authoritarianism within China has evolved into a wider sports and human rights showdown as the tennis world takes a stand for Peng Shuai.
