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.
Paid subscribers automatically have this list emailed directly to their inboxes every day by 10 a.m. EST. Subscribe here.
The Wall Street Journal
- China Eastern Plane Carrying More Than 130 People Crashes — Rescue teams sent to scene of the downed plane, a Boeing 737-800, in southern China.
- How Chinese Shares Went Haywire: ‘The Market Is Completely Unstable’ — Panic selling gave way to an epic rebound after Beijing offered its support.
- Clouds, Crops, ‘The Rose of Time’: China Enjoys a Bull Market in Poetic Investor Letters — ‘The future belongs to the optimists,’ one domestic asset manager says.
- China Evergrande Halts Trading in Its Stocks — Evergrande’s Hong Kong-listed property-services and electric-vehicle units also suspended from trading.
- China Says Housing Prices Are Stable, but Developers See Significant Declines — One reason for diverging picture is the composition of the official data, economists and analysts say.
- China’s Big Tech Firms Are Axing Thousands of Workers — Tencent, Alibaba and Didi are among companies in the process of slashing jobs this year as they face economic and regulatory headwinds.
- Elon Musk’s Business Ties to China Create Unease in Washington — Tesla, SpaceX are at the center of discussions; some lawmakers fear Beijing could access secrets as ‘Congress doesn’t have good eyes on this’.
- Mainland China Reports First Coronavirus Deaths in More Than a Year as Omicron Spreads — Two Covid-19 patients died Friday in Jilin, hard-hit province where millions have been ordered to stay indoors.
- Foxconn Running at Full Capacity in Shenzhen After Covid-19 Restrictions Lifted — As the Chinese manufacturing hub returns to business as usual, rise in cases prompts tighter pandemic controls for Jilin, Shanghai.
- China’s Covid-19 Flare-Up Threatens Backlog at Busy Port of Shenzhen — While gateway remains open, ships are accumulating as trucks are unable to move cargo, with the city enduring restrictions.
- Shanghai Disney Resort to Close Monday Amid Covid-19 Surge in China — Temporary park closure will be until further notice, resort says.
- Hong Kong to Lift Flight Bans and Shorten Quarantines From April 1 — City’s top official says inbound quarantine for vaccinated residents to be shortened to seven days.
The Financial Times
- Passenger plane crashes in southern China — China Eastern Airlines flight with 132 people on board comes down in mountain range in Guangxi.
- Hong Kong suspends trading in shares of Chinese property developer Evergrande — Investors braced for company announcement that could shed light on restructuring.
- Foreign investors dump Chinese stocks at record pace — ‘Perfect storm’ for country’s equities as surging virus cases add to geopolitical concerns.
- Chinese market rally disguises concerns over deglobalisation — Many investors applaud Beijing’s confidence-boosting measures but fret about the risk of decoupling.
- Hong Kong eases travel curbs that hit economy and sparked an exodus — Carrie Lam lifts flight ban but business warns the city has already been damaged.
- Beijing digs in to avoid repeating Hong Kong’s Covid mistakes — Tens of millions of unvaccinated elderly Chinese threaten Xi Jinping’s policy.
- China’s calculus in Ukraine’s war — The idea that China is not ‘important enough to exert power on the world stage’ is outdated.
- Transatlantic summitry to sketch out tough message to China — EU seeks to co-ordinate with US president ahead of next week’s summit with Xi Jinping.
- Biden and Xi fail to bridge differences over Ukraine war — US president threatens ‘consequences’ if Beijing helps military as Zelensky calls for ‘meaningful’ talks with Moscow.
- A gripping account of China’s rise as a tech superpower — The communist regime was quick to realise the potential of digital supremacy, while the west remained naive.
- China oil prices: stress signals for local refiners will not end soon — Accelerating inflation means Beijing has little leeway in allowing further fuel price hikes.
The New York Times
- Flight MU-5735 Descended More Than 20,000 Feet in Just Over a Minute — An hour after it took off, the flight turned horribly wrong, according to data from Flightradar24.
- Farmers Describe Scene of China Eastern Airlines Plane Crash — Witnesses told Chinese news outlets they were at first baffled by the explosion in a rural area. Then, they realized the smoke was coming from what may be China’s worst air accident in decades.
- As Omicron Surges and Economy Suffers, China Tweaks ‘Zero Covid’ — Beijing is fine-tuning its virus response playbook to try to limit the cost of restrictions. But its goal of eliminating all infections could make that difficult.
- Confusion and Chaos in Hong Kong as Leaders Fumble Virus Response — Government officials have been unable to curb an outbreak that has surpassed one million infections, leading Beijing to step up its intervention in the semiautonomous territory.
- Biden Warns China — In a two-hour call, the president told Xi Jinping there would be “consequences” if China provides aid to Russia.
- In Rare Rebuke, Chinese Denounce Russia’s War in Ukraine — A persistent minority of Chinese scholars, journalists and citizens is warning Beijing against the risks of supporting the invasion of Ukraine.
Caixin
- Cover Story: China’s Covid Response Calibration — Regulators have moved to fine-tune policies to make the virus control strategy better fit the new normality.
- In Depth: Chinese Stocks’ Wild Ride — As the war in Ukraine has fueled market volatility and measures to contain Covid-19 outbreaks across China have disrupted the economy, investors remain on edge.
- Private Equity Giant Hillhouse Quashes Loss Speculation as Stocks Plunge — Firm says its dollar funds’ total position in U.S. shares only amounted to $6 billion, so rumored $30 billion loss would be ‘impossible’.
South China Morning Post
- Anti-corruption watchdog vows clamp down on the ‘money bags’ of local governments — The Jiangsu branch of China’s anti-graft watchdog has said it will target corruption and disorder surrounding local government financing vehicles (LGFVs) – known as the “money bags” of regional authorities – once again highlighting poor transparency around the platforms amid mounting debt pressure.
- China population: ‘entirely possible’ will peak this year as provinces report more declines — China’s population is likely to peak this year, a central bank adviser said, with several provinces already reporting declines in the population growth rate.
- China’s No 2 chip maker seeks Shanghai listing to expand capacity, as Beijing continues to back self-sufficiency drive — Hong Kong-listed Hua Hong Semiconductor, China’s second-biggest chip maker, said it will seek a secondary listing on Shanghai’s Star board to expand capacity, according to a company statement.
- US watchers in Beijing urge closer look at Biden’s tough new ‘China hands’ — With Biden forecasting ‘extreme competition’, scholars urge understanding of new faces formulating China policy in Washington.
Nikkei Asia
- Foxconn ‘basically’ resumes normal operations in China’s Shenzhen — Move comes after COVID-19 outbreaks disrupted work at most important campuses.
- China’s budget deficit to shrink to pre-pandemic 2.8% of GDP on windfall — One-time funding gains mask local revenue shortfalls and looming retirement wave.
- Woes of Chinese property developers multiply — Many see monthly sales decline by more than half from 2021 level.
Bloomberg
- Plane Crash Is China’s First Commercial Air Disaster in a Decade — China has a strong record on aviation safety, with fatal commercial aircraft crashes unheard of in recent years and airlines operating millions of flying hours without incident.
- Boeing 737 in China Crash Has Good Safety Record, Unlike the Max — The Boeing Co. 737-800 NG model that crashed in China on Monday is considered one of the safest aircraft ever made.
- China Probes Ex-Vice President of Top Court in Corruption Purge — A former vice president of China’s Supreme People’s Court is being probed, as Communist Party cadres enter a turbulent period ahead of a leadership congress this year.
- China Plans for Cheaper, Longer Lasting Energy Storage by 2025 — China plans to promote larger-scale use of non-hydro energy storage technologies at lower costs in order to backup the world’s biggest fleet of wind and solar power plants.
Reuters
- Volkswagen unveils Asian ventures to secure e-battery materials supply — Volkswagen will form joint ventures with Huayou Cobalt and Tsingshan Group to secure nickel and cobalt supplies forelectric vehicles in China, the world’s No. 1 car market, and to slash costs at a time of surging raw material prices.
- Pressed to choose sides on Ukraine, China trade favors the West — Based on trade flows alone, Beijing has a lot at stake following Biden’s nearly two-hour video call with Xi on Friday, with the White House confirming that sanctions on China were an option.
- Sri Lanka in talks with China for $2.5 billion credit support, Chinese official says — Chinese ambassador to Sri Lanka Qi Zhenhong told reporters the two sides were also discussing a separate loan of up to $1 billion which the Sri Lankan government had requested.
Other Publications
- Associated Press: AP Exclusive: US admiral says China fully militarized isles — China has fully militarized at least three of several islands it built in the disputed South China Sea, arming them with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile systems, laser and jamming equipment, and fighter jets in an increasingly aggressive move that threatens all nations operating nearby, a top U.S. military commander said Sunday.
- Politico: Ambassador says China promotes peace but won’t condemn Russia — Qin Gang said that China has and will continue to do everything it can to deescalate the conflict.
- Foreign Affairs: Is China Helping Russia Hide Money? — The Kremlin May Have Stashed Billions in Offshore Accounts.
- Foreign Policy: How to Love Hong Kong Despite Everything — Surviving in the impossible city is still worth the price.
