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 Excels in Google Rankings on Xinjiang and Covid-19 Searches — China’s global campaign to expand the reach of its political positions is helping it secure a coveted piece of online real estate: first-page search results on Google and other major Western portals.
The Financial Times
- China completes opening up bond market in bid to woo foreign investors — Beijing seeks to reignite interest in onshore debt in face of economic slowdown.
- China industrial profits fall as lockdown pain spreads — Contraction heaps more pressure on government that insists on sticking to zero-Covid strategy.
- Alibaba leads Chinese tech sector surge after first-quarter results — Ecommerce group’s Hong Kong shares rise 12% after beating earnings estimates despite Covid lockdowns.
- China builds coalition to counter America’s ‘barbaric and bloody’ leadership — Beijing woos nations to join its Global Security Initiative that ‘respects each other’s sovereignty’.
- US to retain focus on China as greatest threat to international order — Secretary of state accuses Beijing of becoming ‘more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad’.
- China’s central bank faces a delicate balancing act — A strong dose of monetary easing may boost short-term growth, but would risk inflating stock and housing bubbles.
The New York Times
- China Spins U.N. Human Rights Chief’s Visit as Propaganda — Michelle Bachelet’s tour includes Xinjiang, where China has been accused of genocide. The terms of her visit are unclear, and critics say Beijing is using her for propaganda.
- Global Brands Seek Clarity on Xinjiang — Companies that sourced cotton from the region in China are weighing evidence of forced labor, a lack of visibility into operations and new regulation.
- Biden Vows to Defend Taiwan, But China Has The Upper Hand — Biden pledges to defend Taiwan against China, but the U.S. is outgunned.
- Imaging Contrast Dye Shortage Delays Tests for Diseases — Many U.S. hospitals are postponing scans used to diagnose diseases after a Covid lockdown in China hobbled the main U.S. supplier of an imaging chemical.
Caixin
- Hong Kong Ends Mutual Accounting Recognition Accord With U.S. — Agreement expires at year-end as Chinese and U.S. authorities seek to resolve a long-running dispute over access to Chinese companies’ audit documents.
- Steel Craters in China as Demand Dries Up Amid Covid Lockdowns — Prices plunge 14% from April highs and stockpiles at steelmakers skyrocket, reflecting the crash in construction as well as weakness in manufacturing.
- In Depth: China’s Silver Screens Lose Their Luster as Pandemic Grinds on — After years of disruption to theater operations and filmmaking, the country’s movie industry is nearing the brink.
- Covid Controls Slice Beijing Restaurants’ Income in Half, Survey Shows — Eateries look for new ways to serve customers, including street stalls, with mixed results.
- China Subsidizes Airlines, Car Purchases to Ease Pain of Crippling Lockdowns — Authorities issue a raft of measures to boost consumer spending and support businesses hit hard by persistent Covid controls.
South China Morning Post
- China’s streaming giant iQiyi reports rare quarterly profit after deep job cuts — The Nasdaq-listed company, majority-owned by search giant Baidu, reported its first ever quarterly profit after cutting back spending on content and staff.
- With focus on economy, China underlines stabilising force of GDP growth — Premier Li Keqiang’s instruction to ‘exhaust all measures’ to stabilise economic growth contrasts with previous emphasis on quality over speed.
- Ant Group grants first dividends to shareholders but Jack Ma chooses not to cash out — Ant Group, the fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, has granted billions of yuan in cash dividends to its shareholders for the first time since it brought in investors in 2015.
- Evergrande discussing staggered payments, debt-to-equity swaps for US$19 billion offshore bonds, sources say — Evergrande is reeling under more than US$300 billion in liabilities and has become the poster child of the country’s property sector crisis.
- Chinese computer maker Lenovo reports record-high growth despite a year of controversies at home — Top PC maker Lenovo reported record revenues and profits for its latest financial year, boosted by the global work-from-home trend, and despite domestic controversies over executive pay and past asset sales.
- China GDP: Premier Li signals ‘clear urgency’ on reviving economy, but no change to zero-Covid — Premier Li Keqiang’s address to Chinese officials shows Beijing is ramping up efforts to prevent a recession, analysts say, but there will be no immediate change to the zero-Covid policy that has hammered business.
Nikkei Asia
- China property market slump turns into rout — Faster sales decline in April prompts additional support from Beijing.
- ‘Move to earn’ crypto game bans Chinese users, prompts price plunge — Stepn says it is responding ‘proactively’ amid Beijing’s crackdown.
Bloomberg
- China Opens Exchange Bond Markets to Overseas Investors — China will allow foreign institutional investors to trade bonds on its smaller exchange market in its latest step to attract more capital inflows.
- NFT App Blocks Users in China, Sending Digital Tokens Plunging — Nine months after officially declaring all cryptocurrency transactions illegal, China still has the power to roil digital assets.
- China State-Backed Builder Rocks Bond Market With Delay Plan — A Chinese property company long considered among the nation’s most resilient shocked investors with a proposed dollar-bond payment delay, raising fresh doubts about the financial strength of the industry’s higher-rated borrowers.
- Didi Is Said to Draw China FAW’s Interest in Buying Stake — State-owned automaker China FAW Group Co. is considering acquiring a significant stake in the troubled ride-hailing giant Didi Global Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.
- China Tech Shares Gain as Sales Beats Boost Turnaround Hopes — Chinese tech shares jumped as two of the biggest Internet giants reported sales that topped estimates, lifting some of the gloom that had beset the sector following Covid-19 lockdowns and regulatory headwinds.
- Sequoia-Backed Growatt Said to Weigh $500 Million Hong Kong IPO — Growatt, a Chinese smart energy solutions company, is considering a Hong Kong initial public offering to raise as much as $500 million, according to people familiar with the matter.
Reuters
- Kiribati focuses on trade not security for China visit to remote Pacific island — China’s foreign minister Wang Yi stopped over in Kiribati on Friday, visiting the remote island nation as part of a Pacific tour that Beijing hopes will lay ground for a regional trade and security pact, alarming the United States and its allies.
- N.Korea stockpiled Chinese masks, vaccines before reporting COVID-19 outbreak — In the months before it acknowledged its first official COVID-19 outbreak, North Korea suddenly imported millions of face masks, 1,000 ventilators, and possibly vaccines from China, trade data released by Beijing showed.
Other Publications
- The Washington Post: As China mines more coal, levels of a more potent greenhouse gas soar — Amid fears of an energy crunch, China is mining more coal than ever and releasing more methane.
- The Economist: Trouble at the top and bottom of China’s financial sector — The government is cracking down on crooked bankers.
- The Economist: Taiwan is worried about the security of its chip industry — New laws are meant to prevent espionage and leaking.