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 Plans Reprieve for Tech Giants, Including Delaying New Rules, as Economy Slows — With Omicron variant battering China’s economy, authorities are moving to pause regulatory campaign against technology sector.
- More Americans View China as a Threat, Poll Finds — Respondents in a Pew survey see Beijing primarily as an economic rival but worry about its friendship with Moscow.
- Chinese Tech Stocks Lead Market Rebound — More supportive stance from China’s leadership helps stocks reverse some of their recent losses.
- U.S. Court Names Hytera Employees Charged in Alleged Motorola Trade-Secret Theft — An unsealed document revealed the names of seven individuals who allegedly stole trade secrets from Motorola.
- China Developers Try to Revive Moribund Home Sales in Golden Week — Troubled Evergrande and its healthier peers have rolled out price discounts and freebies to entice home buyers.
- Apple Says Covid-19 Lockdowns in China Loom Over Sales — Company posts upbeat results, but CEO Tim Cook warns of a range of supply-chain challenges.
- China’s Hangzhou Rolls Out 48-Hour Covid-19 Pass as Beijing Closes Schools — Officials signal no letup in restrictions as virus continues to spread and Shanghai death toll rises.
- China’s Covid-19 Defenses Have a Missing Piece: Vaccinating the Elderly — Only half of Chinese over 80 have received two vaccine doses, a much lower rate than the population at large.
The Financial Times
- Weijian Shan: the private equity chief who dared to criticise Beijing — The head of PAG offered rare and blistering criticism of ‘draconian’ zero-Covid policies.
- Arm set to regain control of renegade China unit after near 2-year battle — Allen Wu says plans by the UK chip designer and its owner SoftBank to remove him are illegal.
- Renminbi on course for steepest monthly fall as China’s economy slows — Currency sell-off sharpens after president pledges ‘all out’ infrastructure spending.
- China pension reforms lure international investors — BlackRock among asset managers preparing new products for private retirement scheme debut.
- China’s Covid travel restrictions compound economic pain — Cases are falling in worst-affected cities but manufacturers struggle to secure vital components.
- Hong Kong, my vanishing city — Facing a political crackdown, austere Covid rules and an uncertain future, many Hong Kongers are fleeing into exile — and battling to preserve their identity. By Louisa Lim
The New York Times
- Under Lockdown in China — Weeks of confinement in Shanghai have fueled anger and anxiety about the cost of a “zero-Covid” strategy.
- Musk’s Ties to China Could Create Headaches for Twitter — Elon Musk has invested heavily in China, where officials are willing to influence or punish companies that cross political red lines.
- Solar Industry ‘Frozen’ as Biden Administration Investigates China — More than 300 solar projects in the United States have been canceled or delayed in recent weeks because of an investigation by the Commerce Department.
Caixin
- In Depth: China’s Rare-Earth Hub Wrestles a Stubborn Problem — Cleaning Up — Ganzhou produces 70% of the world’s medium and heavy rare earths, but rare-earth extraction, despite its economic benefits for locals, has left the people of Ganzhou living with toxic water and contaminated soil.
- Politburo Urges Local Governments to Loosen Grip on Developers’ Pre-Sales Revenue — Move comes as housing sales continue to dwindle despite measures to ease strict property policies.
Nikkei Asia
- Ditch the driver: U.S. and China race to make self-driving taxis a reality — As Baidu takes to Beijing streets, Waymo and Cruise fear falling behind.
- China’s UnionPay shuns Russian banks as sanctions force caution — Bank card company forgoes new opportunities to maintain global connections.
- China oil major CNOOC has ‘no plan to exit’ any region: executive — Company ‘closely monitoring’ developments with Western energy assets in Russia.
Bloomberg
- Xi’s Vow to Boost Growth While Locking Down Met With Skepticism — China’s top leaders vowed on Friday to hit this year’s economic growth target while also sticking with a Covid Zero strategy that has locked down major cities. Economists doubt they can do both.
- Ant Group Says It Has Exited Investment in China Postal Bank — Ant Group Co. has gradually exited its investment in Postal Savings Bank of China, according to a statement on Friday.
- Bets of Easing Crackdown Spur Dizzying Jump in China Tech Stocks — Technology stocks led a broad rally in Chinese equities on Friday as the nation’s top leaders vowed to boost economic stimulus and as speculation grew about a possible easing of the continued crackdown on internet firms.
Reuters
- ‘Entry only. No exit:’ Beijing sees more COVID closures as anger grows in Shanghai — A video shared on social media, whose authenticity could not be immediately verified, showed a woman warning people via a loud-hailer not to do so, saying such gestures were being encouraged by “outsiders.”
- China battery maker CATL suffers profit fall as costs soar — Prices of key metals such as lithium nearly doubled in the first three months, weighing on CATL’s profit margins and prompting it to raise battery prices in March.
- Hong Kong student jailed for five years under national security law — A Hong Kong court on Friday increased a jail sentence to five years for a student who called for independence from China in posts on the Telegram messaging service.
The Economist
- America has a plan to throttle Chinese chipmakers — It will deny them tools to do the job.
- Grim tales test China’s claim to be governed by the people — When changes to the law are needed, does the state respond?
- China plans to roll out private, personal pensions — About time.
- Why some Chinese are angry about covid — The politics of a bungled lockdown of 25m people in Shanghai.
Other Publications
- The Washington Post: China’s aggressive efforts to bring back fugitives grow more brazen — To get a fugitive in Cyprus to surrender, Beijing harassed his partner and their relatives in China
- Foreign Policy: The U.S. and China Need Ground Rules for AI Dangers — Autonomous weapon systems pose a serious escalatory risk.
