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 Mobile Makes Debut in Shanghai After $9 Billion Stock Sale — Cellphone carrier was booted from the New York Stock Exchange after it was added to U.S. investment blacklist.
- China’s Unpredictable, Heavy-Handed Governance Threatens Growth — The country lacks the right policy tools to meet Xi Jinping’s vastly expanded goals as centralized power roils decision making.
- Lockdown of Chinese City Leaves 13 Million Stranded — Residents of Xi’an voice desperation under restrictions that recall the closing of Wuhan in 2020.
- Chinese Sportswear Company Anta Gains on Nike, Adidas Over Forced-Labor Issue — Western sportswear brands lose ground in China amid consumer boycott of foreign companies taking stand on Xinjiang cotton.
- Olympic Committee Becomes Latest Target of Critics of Treatment of Uyghurs — Activist group says IOC has refused to engage with it on human-rights issues in China’s Xinjiang region, including use of forced labor to make apparel.
- Tencent Sells Roughly $3 Billion of Its Stake in Singapore’s Sea — Chinese internet giant retains 19% share of the e-commerce and videogame company, whose value has surged in recent years.
- Europe’s Trade Czar Walks Line Between U.S. and China — Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU’s top economic chief, is trying to lift the economy from Covid-19 crisis and strengthen it against foreign rivals.
- As China Tensions Smoulder, Japan and Australia Move to Sign Defense Treaty — Australia-Japan pact will allow troops to freely enter each other’s countries for exercises without having to negotiate terms each time.
The Financial Times
- China Mobile: one of the safer calls among local companies — State-owned group benefits from growing demand for 5G, backed by Beijing’s encouragement to spread the technology.
- Evergrande to meet onshore bondholders in bid to delay payments — Indebted Chinese property group seeks reprieve as it tries to finish construction projects.
- Tencent move to sell $3bn of Sea shares sends stock down sharply — Singaporean gaming and ecommerce group fell 11% after Chinese tech giant said it would cut stake.
- Chinese banks cut back traditional lending as concern over economy mounts — Lenders purchase banker’s acceptances as safer way to support government policy.
- Lithuania’s president chides government for China spat — Gitanas Nauseda says decision to allow Taiwan to open de facto embassy in its own name was an error.
The New York Times
- As Beijing Takes Control, Chinese Tech Companies Lose Jobs and Hope — The crackdown is killing the entrepreneurial drive that made China a tech power and destroying jobs that used to attract the country’s brightest.
- Tesla Draws Criticism After Opening Dealership in Xinjiang — Senator Marco Rubio criticized the electric carmaker for opening the outlet in a region where China has been accused of targeting Muslims.
- Hong Kong expands its vaccine requirements as it fights to control Omicron. — But Hong Kong’s vaccine drive has been set back by residents who are suspicious of the government and its unpopular leader.
- Faced With Questions About Forced Labor in China, the I.O.C. Is Tight-Lipped — Olympic officials are reluctant to look into whether any Beijing 2022 merchandise might have been made under duress by Uyghurs, an activist group charges.
Caixin
- China Launches Digital Yuan App in Pilot Cities Nationwide — The program is now open to users in 12 cities and regions including the hosts of the upcoming Winter Olympic Games, Beijing and Zhangjiakou
- Deutsche Bank in Talks on Wealth Management Joint Venture in China — A partnership with Postal Savings Bank of China would follow four other tie-ups involving global financial institutions
- Five Things to Know About China’s Plan to Stabilize Growth in 2022 – Stabilizing economic growth has reemerged as the top priority of China’s policymakers, as the world’s second-largest economy’s initial rapid recovery from Covid-19 flames out.
South China Morning Post
- Xian updates Covid-19 rules as two unborn babies lost to hospital delays — Two would-be-mothers in Xian lost their babies as coronavirus-related restrictions delayed treatment, Chinese social media posts revealed, as residents in the northwestern city continued to share their anguish online over two weeks of Covid-19 lockdown.
- Hong Kong bans flights from 8 countries, orders bars, gyms, nightclubs to close and imposes 6pm restaurant curfew for Covid-19 fifth wave battle — Carrie Lam announces two-week flight ban on countries including Australia, Canada, France, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, UK and the US, taking effect on Saturday.
- US-China reach trade talk ‘stalemate’ despite expiry of phase-one deal as Beijing, Washington remain silent — China and the United States have reached a “stalemate” in the process to resume trade talks despite the expiry of their phase-one trade deal last week, with no clear indication from either Beijing or Washington of when the silence will be broken.
Bloomberg
- Tencent Sale Takes Losses to $10 Billion for Internet Mogul — The latest blow for Sea Ltd. CEO Forrest Li came on Tuesday, when China’s Tencent cut its stake in his company and drive the stock to its worst slump in almost two years.
- Bain-Backed China Startup Newlink Said to Mull Hong Kong IPO — Newlink Group, a Chinese energy startup that provides digital solutions to gas and electric-vehicle charging stations, is considering an initial public offering in Hong Kong that could raise $300 million to $400 million, people with knowledge of the matter said.
- Huarong Rescue Team Hit by $4 Billion Paper Loss as Stock Sinks — The state-controlled investors that were directed to bail out China Huarong Asset Management Co. suffered a loss of more than $4 billion as the bad asset manager resumed trading after a nine-month suspension.
Reuters
- HSBC China brokerage joint venture partner selling 39% stake – HSBC Holdings PLC’s China securities brokerage joint venture partner is selling most of its equity ownership, an exchange filing showed, and a source with knowledge of the matter said the bank was expected to bid for the stake.
- China’s market regulator fines Alibaba, Tencent for failing to report deals – China’s top market regulator said on Wednesday it has fined units of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Tencent Holdings Ltd, and Bilibili Inc for failing to properly report about a dozen deals.
- Exclusive: Walmart arm did not deliberately remove Xinjiang goods, China exec tells analysts — Walmart Inc arm Sam’s Club, responding to the furore in China over what local media said was its deliberate removal of Xinjiang-sourced products from its app, denied the move in a call with analysts and termed it “a misunderstanding”.
- China Huarong halves in value as trading resumes — Shares of China Huarong Asset Management Co Ltd plunged as much as 55% in Hong Kong on Wednesday to a record low, after trading resumed following a nine-month hiatus, even as the bad loan company said its restructuring had paved the way for healthy growth.
Other Publications
- Associated Press: China reports major drop in virus cases in locked-down Xi’an — The National Health Commission announced just 35 new cases in Xi’an, home to the famed Terracotta Warriors statues along with major industries, down from 95 the day before.
- The Washington Post: Tales of anguish emerge from China’s locked-down Xian, as hospitals demand patients be covid-free — Online commentators began to talk of the failures of Xian’s response as a second crisis, no worse than that of the virus. “In today’s Xian, you can starve to death, can get sick and die, but you just cannot die of covid,” one wrote.
