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 Evergrande Says Construction Has Resumed at Vast Majority of Its Projects — Founder and chairman predicts recovery, though property firm’s debt issues remain unresolved.
- Uganda Finds China’s Leverage Is in the Fine Print of Its Lending — A clause in an agreement with the African nation has stirred a flap over whether the country signed away financial control of Entebbe International Airport.
- China’s Securities Regulator Lays Out Overseas Listing Rules — The draft framework aims for clarity following Beijing’s crackdown on overseas listings by Chinese companies.
- Brands Walk Fine Line With Olympic Pitches Amid Criticism Over Beijing — Under pressure from politicians and human-rights groups, advertisers look to delicately calibrate campaigns for the Winter Games.
- Saudis Begin Making Ballistic Missiles With Chinese Help — The effort is raising new worries about a Middle East arms race.
- Tencent Slashes JD.com Stake With $16 Billion Dividend to Shareholders — China’s internet juggernaut was the largest backer of online retailer JD as part of its gamble on e-commerce.
- Jack Ma’s Ant Boosts Consumer-Finance Unit With $3.5 Billion Fundraising — State-backed Cinda to take 20% stake in the recently established unit.
The Financial Times
- Didi blocks employees from selling shares indefinitely — Chinese ride-hailing group extends lock-up period after moving to delist from New York.
- Cathay Pacific suffers pilot exodus amid Hong Kong’s ‘permanent quarantine’ — City’s strict zero-Covid policy has hit morale in another bleak year for airline.
- China tightens lockdown measures in Xi’an as Covid cases rise — Worst outbreak since 2020 tests ‘zero-Covid’ approach ahead of Winter Olympics.
- China-Taiwan geopolitical rivalry fuels tensions in Pacific Islands — Dilemma over whether to recognise Taipei or Beijing feeds into underlying domestic conflicts.
- China tightens rules for companies listing abroad after crackdown — Investors hope proposed regulations will provide greater legal certainty for overseas issuers.
- Tencent/JD: $16bn stake sale signals state push for crossholdings unwind — The more stakes and tie-ups Tencent is forced to relinquish, the weaker its prospects will be.
The New York Times
- Why Bragging About Your Wealth In China Can Get You Censored — Online posts by users showing off their receipts, over-ordering food or scattering money have been deemed vulgar. Regulators say such content leads young people astray.
- As Olympics Near, China Tightens Rules and Athletes Invent Their Own — With the Omicron variant spreading only weeks before the Beijing Games, Olympians and organizers are navigating a stretch run marked by isolation, inoculation and worry.
- U.S. Effort to Combat Forced Labor Targets Corporate China Ties — The Biden administration is expected to face scrutiny as it decides how to enforce a new ban on products made with forced labor in the Xinjiang region of China.
Caixin
- China Fleshes Out Regulation on Domestic Firms Listed Overseas — The NDRC and Ministry of Commerce publish updated negative list for foreign investment.
- China to Let Local Governments Find Own Ways to Meet National Carbon Goals — A new work plan opens the way for eligible authorities to run pilot investment and financing programs for climate projects.
- China’s Smaller Cities Dole Out Incentives to Drive Property Sales — Local governments roll out subsidies for buying real estate or implement policies to reduce the deed tax, in efforts to reinvigorate the sector.
- Northwest China’s Xinjiang Gets New Communist Party Chief — Ma Xingrui, governor of South China’s Guangdong province, was given the new role while the 66-year-old Chen will “be given another appointment,” the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
South China Morning Post
- China’s new VIE rule eases concerns about overseas IPOs following months of uncertainty after Didi probe — China’s securities watchdog has given tacit approval to a corporate structure that lets technology companies raise funds offshore, closing a two-decades-long regulatory loophole that has become a lightning rod in rising US-China tensions in capital markets.
- China’s gaming crackdown: concerns about Steam ban heightened after Christmas connectivity issues — Concerns that the world’s largest video game platform Steam was blocked in China on Christmas Day have spread on social media as gamers complained about issues connecting to the website days after it kicked off its popular year-end sale.
- Hong Kong official ‘sickened’ by Wall Street Journal editorial calling Legislative Council poll ‘a sham’ — “I am sickened by your biased and unsubstantiated editorials on Hong Kong issues and have given up hope that you will ever try to report accurately and fairly on Hong Kong,” Tsang said in a letter dated Thursday.
Bloomberg
- China Imposes Curbs on Foreign IPOs From Restricted Sectors — China will impose new restrictions on offshore listings by firms in sectors that are off-limits to foreign investment, a move that could plug a loophole long used by the country’s technology industry to raise capital overseas.
- New Xinjiang Boss Vows No Reversal to Stability-First Policy — Xinjiang’s newly appointed leader pledged to maintain a focus on social stability in China’s far western region, where human rights practices have fed international criticism and boycotts.
- Hong Kong Art Removals Cap Push to Halt Tiananmen Memorials — Hong Kong has removed more works of art memorializing the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown overnight, as the city completes a purge of high-profile commemorations of a traumatic event long erased from the public record on mainland China.
Reuters
- China will step up foreign exchange market monitoring in 2022 – regulator — China will strengthen foreign exchange market monitoring and step up risk prevention and control in 2022, the country’s FX regulator said in a statement on Monday.
- China Huarong sells 70% stake in its consumer finance unit to Bank of Ningbo — China Huarong Asset Management Co said on Monday that it will sell a 70% stake in its consumer finance unit for 1.1 billion yuan ($172.64 million) to Bank of Ningbo, as Huarong continues to divest assets as part of a business revamp.
Other Publications
- The New Yorker: China’s Reform Generation Adapts to Life in the Middle Class — My students from the nineteen-nineties grew up in rural poverty. Now they’re in their forties, and their country is unrecognizable. By Peter Hessler
- Nikkei Asia: Pharmacy of the world: China’s quest to be the No. 1 drugmaker — How policy, people and cash are driving growth — and sparking a backlash.
- The Washington Post: Hong Kong is clinging to ‘zero covid’ and extreme quarantine. Talent is leaving in droves. — The approach has largely cut off Hong Kong from both China and the world — a severe blow for a place that built its success on global connections.
- Quartz: RIP, Hong Kong’s Tiananmen sculpture — The Pillar of Shame was a tangible symbol of the former British territory’s autonomy from Beijing and mainland China, where the party determines what moments and versions of China’s history can be taught or discussed publicly.
- Associated Press: Jonathan D. Spence, popular China scholar, dead at age 85 — The British-born historian who became a longtime Yale University professor and prominent sinologist and attracted a wide following with his 1990 best-seller “The Search for Modern China,” has died at age 85.
