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
- Peng Shuai: What Happened to the Chinese Tennis Star? — Athlete stirred global concern after making a sexual-assault allegation against a retired senior Communist Party official.
- Advanced Maneuver in China Hypersonic Missile Test Shows New Military Capability — Hypersonic missile test has intensified scrutiny of Beijing’s military buildup.
The Financial Times
- Chinese hypersonic weapon fired a missile over South China Sea — Pentagon struggles to understand how Beijing mastered technology.
- China’s exiled crypto machines fuel global mining boom — From Venezuela to Russia, data collected by FT map where machinery ended up.
- Olympics chief holds video call with missing Chinese tennis star — International concern grows over Peng Shuai’s wellbeing following her accusation of assault by former state official.
- Wall Street and the Chinese military industrial complex — Most US companies doing business with Chinese firms are being influenced in some way by the Communist party.
- China downgrades diplomatic relations with Lithuania over Taiwan ties — Beijing says Baltic state’s decision to deepen links with Taipei challenges ‘one China’ policy.
- Roblox’s China ambitions risk falling flat — Partnership with Tencent has yet to pay off for online gaming company that faces regulatory barriers and tough competition.
The New York Times
- What to Know About the Frantic Quest for Cobalt — A New York Times investigation examines the global demand for raw materials as the clean energy revolution takes off. This is what we found.
- A Power Struggle Over Cobalt Rattles the Clean Energy Revolution — The quest for Congo’s cobalt, which is vital for electric vehicles and the worldwide push against climate change, is caught in an international cycle of exploitation, greed and gamesmanship.
- How the U.S. Lost Ground to China in the Contest for Clean Energy — Americans failed to safeguard decades of diplomatic and financial investments in Congo, where the world’s largest supply of cobalt is controlled by Chinese companies backed by Beijing.
- How Hunter Biden’s Firm Helped Secure Cobalt for the Chinese — The president’s son was part owner of a venture involved in the $3.8 billion purchase by a Chinese conglomerate of one of the world’s largest cobalt deposits. The metal is a key ingredient in batteries for electric vehicles.
Caixin
- Ping An’s Fintech Unit Posts Widened Loss Even as Revenues Rise — The New-York listed OneConnect lost $42 million in the third quarter amid bribery allegations that the company had denied
- Shares of Evergrande’s Electric Car Unit Jump 11% on Fundraising Plan — Cash-strapped Evergrande New Energy Vehicle announced $347 million stock sale as it rushes to roll out mass production of its first model
- Kangmei Verdict Spurs Wave of Independent Directors to Quit — Court ruling that five outside board members share liability in drugmaker’s massive fraud shows the need for overhauling corporate governance systems
South China Morning Post
- Huawei starts to sell used smartphones, license handset designs amid its struggle with US trade sanctions — US-blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co is now selling refurbished smartphones and licensing its handset designs to partners amid the company’s ongoing struggles to access advanced semiconductors for manufacturing its various devices.
- Taiwanese giant slapped with fines over mainland regulatory violations, Xinhua says — Mainland subsidiaries of a major Taiwanese industrial group have been punished for a range of regulatory and legal violations, including environmental protection rules, state media reported.
- China to prioritise Southeast Asia with upgraded relations, development aid — China has raised the importance it places on Southeast Asia in its diplomacy, pledging to upgrade relations with the region to focus more on security cooperation and development funding.
Bloomberg
- Chinese Electric Car Producer BYD Shows How Plug-In Hybrids Can Help Beat Tesla — Even with disruptions from chip shortages and supply chain failures it’s been a banner year for China’s car market, the world’s largest. Sales of electric models are on track to more than double 2020’s tally and local automakers have begun prospering overseas, as well as at home.
- EV Battery Giant CATL Becomes China’s Second-Biggest Stock — China investor favorite Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. hit a fresh record on Monday, overtaking a state-owned bank to become the second-largest company listed onshore.
- Evergrande Shares Worth $1 Billion Appear in Clearing System — China Evergrande Group shares worth nearly $1 billion appeared in Hong Kong’s Central Clearing and Settlement System on Friday, a sign that founder Hui Ka Yan may be pledging part of his stake as collateral for loans.
- A $391 Million Fine Has China’s Board Members Quitting En Masse — China’s independent directors are quitting once coveted seats on the boards of listed companies, spooked by fines levied on five directors of Kangmei Pharmaceutical Co. that totaled hundreds of millions of dollars.
Reuters
- African nations mend and make do as China tightens Belt and Road — China has lent African countries hundreds of billions of dollars as part of President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which envisaged Chinese institutions financing the bulk of the infrastructure in mainly developing nations. Yet the credit has dried up in recent years.
- Xi tells Southeast Asian leaders China does not seek ‘hegemony’ — Chinese President Xi Jinping told leaders of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at a summit on Monday that Beijing would not “bully” its smaller regional neighbours, amid rising tension over the South China Sea.
Other Publications
- The New Yorker: The Fraying of U.S.-China Relations — The sinologist Jude Blanchette discusses the Biden-Xi summit and whether we are seeing the beginnings of a new cold war.
- Associated Press: Interpol election raises rights concerns about fair policing — Human rights groups and Western lawmakers are warning that Interpol’s powerful network of global police officers could end up under the sway of authoritarian governments, as the world police agency meets in Istanbul this week to elect new leadership.
