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’s Covid-19 Restrictions Threaten Economic Recovery — First-quarter GDP figures paint relatively rosy picture, but data didn’t capture full impact of Covid-19 restrictions.
- IMF Cuts China Growth Forecast to 4.4% — Fund’s second China downgrade this year reflects spreading Covid-19 lockdowns and pressure from war in Ukraine.
- U.S. Companies Face Hurdles in Moving Production Closer to Home — It may take years to duplicate the supplier networks and availability of raw materials on a scale found in Asian manufacturing hubs, experts say.
The Financial Times
- China and Solomon Islands sign security deal ahead of US visit — Agreement will exacerbate western fears over Beijing’s growing influence in South Pacific.
- China unveils support measures as lockdowns batter economy — Central bank wants lenders to back infrastructure projects and the distressed property industry.
- Baby bust: Pandemic accelerates fall in China’s birth rate — FT Series: Population may already have peaked in centre of global population crunch.
The New York Times
- China’s Covid Shutdowns Go Far Beyond Shanghai — Cities and towns across the country are shutting down, hoping to sidestep the pitfalls and stumbles that Shanghai has faced battling the Omicron variant.
- A Daring Dream and a Lifelong Love, Dashed in a Moment of Violence — GuiYing Ma built a modest life of service in New York until a shocking attack tore her from her devoted husband.
Caixin
- Ant Group to Acquire Singaporean Payment Platform 2C2P — Chinese fintech giant is deepening footprint in booming Southeast Asian market.
- Five Things to Know About China’s Mega East-West Data Center Plan — The main idea of the plan is to boost data centers in the country’s economically poorer but energy-rich western regions, taking part of the data processing workload currently handled predominantly in eastern facilities, where energy is more expensive.
South China Morning Post
- Shanghai lockdown: China takes steps to shore up supply chains by putting Tesla and SMIC on ‘white list’ — By allowing key producers to function as normally as possible, China is aiming to reduce the impact of strict lockdown measures.
- China’s rising household debt is shattering dreams of financial freedom, and ‘fears are spreading’ — Many Chinese who borrowed millions to invest in property, or who hitched their wagon to a now-curtailed tech firm, are growing increasingly fearful of salary reductions, lay-offs, crackdowns and lockdowns.
Bloomberg
- Credit Suisse China JV CEO Quits, Follows Exit at JPMorgan — Credit Suisse Group AG’s chief executive officer at its securities venture in China is stepping aside after less than two years on the job, becoming the second top executive at a major foreign lender in the nation to quit this month.
- China’s Property Sector Contracts for Third Straight Quarter — China’s property sector contracted for a third straight quarter, a sign that real estate was still dragging on the economy, even before the recent Covid outbreaks and lockdowns began to escalate.
- China’s Surprisingly Strong Growth Invites Analysts’ Skepticism — China’s better-than-expected economic data on Monday prompted questions from analysts who pointed to inconsistencies with alternative statistics that paint a grimmer picture of the economy.
- Top China Experts Insist No End to Covid Zero as Deaths Grow — China’s top health officials indicated there’s no end in sight to the country’s increasingly costly Covid Zero approach, even as deaths inch up and the world’s second-largest economy becomes snarled in lockdowns, quarantine and testing rules.
Reuters
- Shanghai urges cooperation with COVID tests amid rising scepticism — The Chinese city of Shanghai on Tuesday pleaded for public cooperation with a massive new push to test most of the population for COVID-19 as it tries to bring community transmission down to zero after nearly three weeks of lockdown.
- As China’s travel chill deepens, tourist-starved regions struggle to get by — As China’s domestic tourism unravels, desperate provinces are slashing ticket prices, offering tax breaks and even begging locals to help save plummeting tourist earnings in a sector that employs tens of millions of people.
Other Publications
- The Atlantic: Chasing The King Of Kowloon — One man symbolized Hong Kong’s multitudes better than any other. By Louisa Lim
- The Information: Why Didi Global’s Delisting Shouldn’t Be Forgotten — Didi revealed today that it plans to hold a shareholder vote on May 23 to approve its delisting from the New York Stock Exchange. It has no plans to relist anywhere else right now.
