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
- Walmart in China’s Spotlight Again as Regulator Cites Infractions — Attention to cybersecurity violations surfaces just days after Chinese authorities criticized the U.S. retailer over Xinjiang products.
- One of China’s Stronger Developers Falls Rapidly From Favor — Shimao’s dollar bonds have dropped to deeply distressed levels.
- Hong Kong Officials Quarantined After Covid-19 Case at Tapas Birthday Party — Senior civil servants attended a celebration for a China lawmaker as city fights its first Omicron outbreak, prompting rebuke from city’s chief executive.
- ‘Revenge Recalls’ Spark Debate in Taiwan: How Much Democracy Is Too Much? — Metalhead lawmaker Freddy Lim is the fifth politician to face a recall in the past year; some see benefits for China in elections that ‘never end’.
The Financial Times
- Shimao’s debt woes deepen concerns over cash crunch in Chinese property — Shanghai bonds of once highly rated developer suspended after failure to make loan payment
The New York Times
- North Korea Says It Will Skip Beijing Olympics Because of the Pandemic — The country also blamed “hostile forces” for its decision not to send a delegation to China, its closest ally.
Caixin
- Tencent’s Stake Sale in Singapore Gaming Giant Had Nothing to Do With Regulatory Risk, Source Says — The Chinese tech giant said Tuesday that its divestment of Sea shares provides it with ‘resources to fund other investments and social initiatives’.
- In Depth: New Zealand Fruit Giant’s Kiwi Battle in China — Zespri Group fights to profit from yellow SunGold variety it developed, alleging it’s being illegally cultivated in its largest market.
- Xi’an Lockdown Rattles World’s Largest Chipmakers — Samsung and Micron semiconductor factories face disruptions as workers stay home in the city’s worst Covid-19 outbreak.
South China Morning Post
- Walmart’s China unit disciplined by Shenzhen police for breaches of cybersecurity laws — The China arm of the world’s largest retailer Walmart Inc has received a warning from police in the southern tech hub of Shenzhen for breaches of cybersecurity laws, as the country tightens its grip over how data is handled by businesses.
- 7-Eleven Beijing fined US$23,500 for ‘incomplete maps of China’ that ‘wrongly presented Taiwan’ — The Beijing branch of global convenience store giant 7-Eleven has been fined 150,000 yuan (US$23,500) for displaying “incomplete maps of China”, according to an official notice.
- All 170 guests of birthday party attended by Hong Kong officials ordered into quarantine, as second Covid-19 case detected among partygoers — One of the partygoers met Beijing’s top official overseeing Hong Kong affairs two days after the celebrations.
- Alibaba reorganises back-end operations of core Chinese online retail platforms Taobao, Tmall amid increased competition — Alibaba Group Holding has restructured the back-end operations of its core Chinese online retail platforms Taobao Marketplace and Tmall, as the e-commerce giant moves to bolster its lead in the world’s second-largest economy amid increased competition and tightened regulation.
Bloomberg
- Hong Kong Birthday Bash Lands 30 Officials in Quarantine — More than two dozen Hong Kong officials have been ordered to quarantine due to possible Covid exposure, as a scandal over a large birthday party they attended despite the government’s own pandemic warnings widened.
- Sinopharm Says New Protein Booster Works Better Against Omicron — China’s state-owned vaccine maker Sinopharm said its new protein subunit Covid-19 inoculation offers better protection as a booster against the omicron variant than its widely deployed inactivated shot.
- China Tests Thousands in IPhone City as Covid Cases Spread — Hundreds of thousands of workers at iPhone maker Foxconn Technology Group and Huawei Technologies Co. are being tested for Covid-19 as China’s latest outbreak shows no signs of easing, with cases cropping up across the country and technology hub Shenzhen on high alert.
- China Tells Hospitals to Take Patients After Lockdown Outcry — China has told hospitals they must accept all patients after strict Covid prevention measures were blamed for a miscarriage in Xi’an, a central city of 13 million people that has been locked down for two weeks.
Reuters
- Walmart gets taste of the Lotte treatment in China — A broader diplomatic fracas over Beijing’s controversial policy toward Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region may be translating into a steady stream of minor but draining regulatory scraps for the $400 billion retailer.
- China’s Kaisa pressured by local government to repay wealth product investors – sources — Under pressure from authorities, Chinese property firm Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd is working furiously to come up with a feasible plan to repay wealth product investors, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.
Other Publications
- The Economist: China’s online nationalists turn paranoia into clickbait — They see hostile foreign forces at every turn.
- The Economist: China and America prepare for a human-rights showdown at the UN — It is not clear which side will win.
- The Economist: China crushes Hong Kong’s independent news outlets — The world loses an important way to understand Hong Kong and China.
- Nikkei Asia: Chinese cobalt producer to double Congo output with eye on top spot — China Molybdenum to invest $2.5bn for sought-after battery material.