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 Quest for Space Power Starts With Moon Dust — The country’s lunar program is a key step toward Beijing’s vision of achieving territorial power in space.
- China’s SenseTime Postpones IPO After U.S. Blacklisting — AI company, which had aimed to raise up to $767 million from the deal, says it is still committed to concluding Hong Kong listing soon.
- Alibaba Fires Female Employee Who Accused Then-Supervisor of Sexual Assault — In dismissal notice, Chinese e-commerce giant alleges she spread false information that damaged the company’s reputation.
- Australia Steps Up Military Overhaul With Korea Arms Deal — U.S. ally to buy 30 self-propelled howitzers, 15 armored ammunition-resupply vehicles and weapon-locating radars.
- Lithium Prices Soar, Turbocharged By Electric-Vehicle Demand and Scant Supply — The lithium price surge is setting off a scramble for supply and fueling fears about long-term battery metals shortages.
- Year in Review: What’s Behind China’s Regulatory Storm — Individually, many of the rules make sense. But taken together, it’s a clear expansion of the government and the Chinese Communist Party, a China expert argues. By Barry Naughton
The Financial Times
- SenseTime postpones Hong Kong IPO after US blacklisting — Chinese artificial intelligence company accused of enabling human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
- South Korea applies to join CPTPP in wake of China’s bid — Seoul’s fears of angering biggest trading partner eased as Beijing seeks membership in regional pact.
- Private equity cuts back on China property as Evergrande hits stocks — One-third of groups plan to reduce exposure to sector as developer’s default reverberates through market.
- Hong Kong media tycoon sentenced to 13 months in jail over Tiananmen vigil — Prison terms for Jimmy Lai and seven activists mark tightening restrictions on free expression.
- North Korea looks across the border for its biggest threat — Kim Jong Un’s regime is more worried about infiltration from China than war with the US.
- Toy sellers ponder reliance on China as supply problems bite — Companies hit by delays and soaring shipping costs are rethinking production options.
- UK spy chief raises fears over China’s digital renminbi — GCHQ head warns technology could allow Beijing to monitor users and exert control over global currency transaction.
The New York Times
- Alibaba Dismisses Employee Who Accused Her Boss of Rape — After initially supporting her #MeToo accusation, the company now blames her for damaging the company’s reputation with false claims.
- U.S. and Others Pledge Export Controls Tied to Human Rights — A partnership with Australia, Denmark, Norway, Canada, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom aims to stem the flow of key technologies to authoritarian governments.
Caixin
- Shanghai and Shenzhen Exchanges Lay Groundwork for Registration-Based IPOs — Bourses recently proposed updated rules governing listed companies and new listings.
- Director of Company That Prints China’s Money Turns Himself In — Chen Yaoming is under investigation by anti-corruption authorities for graft.
- Credit Ratings of Over a Dozen Chinese Property Firms Withdrawn Amid Crisis — Loss of ratings will weaken real estate developers’ ability to get financing through global bond markets, industry insiders and analysts say.
South China Morning Post
- Disruptions to Apple’s manufacturing chain and cost control measures are squeezing Chinese suppliers, report says — Disruptions to Apple’s vast supply chain and cost control measures amid a pandemic-induced chip and components shortage are causing pain for the US tech giant’s Chinese suppliers and distributors, according to a local media report.
- Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, 7 others get jail sentences ranging from 4½ to 14 months over banned Tiananmen Square vigil — The 74-year-old Apple Daily founder, already behind bars, is sentenced to 13 months, while his co-defendants are jailed for up to 14 months each.
- Huawei, Tencent lose cloud market share as Alibaba, Baidu extend their lead, report shows — Chinese tech giants Huawei Technologies Co and Tencent Holdings lost cloud services market share in the third quarter amid tough competition from market leader Alibaba Group Holding and foreign players, according to a new report.
Bloomberg
- Hong Kong Issues Rules for Quarantine-Free Travel to China — Hong Kong’s financial regulator issued rules on quarantine-free travel to the Chinese mainland, laying out some of the first details in the plan to re-open the border.
- Billionaire’s Bet on Pfizer Vaccine for China Fails to Pay Off — As Covid-19 started spreading in Wuhan early last year, Chinese billionaire Guo Guangchang’s drugmaker appeared to have scored a big win: A partnership with Germany’s BioNTech SE, which went on to produce with Pfizer Inc. one of the world’s most successful vaccines against the coronavirus.
- China’s Solar Giants Make a Bid to Dominate Hydrogen Power — Chinese companies spent 10 years aggressively maneuvering to become the dominant players in solar power. Now they’re seeking to lead the way in developing the next big thing in clean energy: hydrogen.
- Inside China’s New Massive National Park System — The ambitious plan to protect wilderness and support biodiversity could involve mass relocations of impoverished communities.
Reuters
- The curious case of a map and a disappearing Taiwan minister at U.S. democracy summit — A video feed of a Taiwanese minister was cut during U.S. President Joe Biden’s Summit for Democracy last week after a map in her slide presentation showed Taiwan in a different color to China, which claims the island as its own.
- Antibody response from China Zhifei’s COVID shot weaker against Omicron — China’s Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical said on Monday a small laboratory test showed its COVID-19 vaccine could trigger antibodies against the Omicron variant though the response was weaker than against an older variant of the virus.
- New China import rules bring headaches for food and beverage makers — China’s customs authority published new food safety rules in April stipulating all food manufacturing, processing and storage facilities abroad need to be registered by year-end for their goods to access the Chinese market.
Other Publications
- Foreign Affairs: The Growing Danger of U.S. Ambiguity on Taiwan — Biden Must Make America’s Commitment Clear to China—and the World. By Richard Haass and David Sacks
- Quartz: The US is delaying China’s dreams of a domestic chip supply chain — Tens of billions of dollars of government support later, China’s chip processing ability is still at least a decade behind the most advanced players.
- Protocol: DiDi’s delisting is China’s new normal — DiDi may be a guinea pig in a transition to tougher data security oversight.
