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
- Chinese Lithium Giant Tests Investor Demand for Hong Kong IPO — Share sale by Tianqi Lithium could raise more than $1 billion.
- China’s Covid Fallout Flattens JD.com’s Online Birthday Bash — Consumers hit the brakes in latest indication of damaged sentiment from macroeconomic headwinds and lengthy lockdowns.
- Mining Firms’ Cautious Spending Threatens Shift to Green Energy — Rio Tinto, BHP and other big miners are giving priority to investor payouts instead of funding for new projects.
- China’s Long-Suffering Property Stocks Aren’t Yet a Buy — Hints of a bottom for sales in large cities have lifted shares in recent days. But extrapolating to the much broader national property market is risky.
- Fire, Blast at Sinopec’s Shanghai Facility Kills One — The cause of the explosion is under investigation.
The Financial Times
- China IPO fundraising doubles US total to top global ranks — Government officials camped out at Shanghai bourse to ensure steady flow of listings during lockdown.
- EU companies say China units increasingly isolated from HQ by zero-Covid — Xi Jinping’s antivirus strategy risks long-term fallout on international business, according to survey.
- NetEase shares fall after nationalist backlash in China over Winnie the Pooh post — Cartoon bear is often used to criticise President Xi Jinping and has been blacklisted by censors.
- China gaming/NetEase: Winnie the Pooh lapse is honey for the bears — Delayed certification for latest blockbuster game highlights regulatory risk facing sector.
- Why China is not rising as a financial superpower — Beijing must find the confidence to lift capital controls and make the renminbi fully convertible.
- International investors cash in on China’s pension market — Reforms to develop individual private pensions for the country’s ageing population have created a wealth of opportunities for the world’s biggest asset managers.
- China denies building naval bases but fear of its military reach grows — Beijing is assembling a network of overseas port facilities to protect its global interests.
- US lawmakers push for more money to counter China in Indo-Pacific — Joe Biden’s claim to refocus foreign policy on Asia is not matched by resources, critics say.
- Chinese state-owned company accused of endangering rare orangutans — SDIC has marketed its environmental credentials but has invested in controversial hydropower plant.
- Freed but frustrated: Chinese tourists struggle to clear Covid travel hurdles — Beijing and Shanghai residents have emerged from stringent lockdowns but the rest of the country remains wary.
The New York Times
- Red Flags for Forced Labor Found in China’s Car Battery Supply Chain — Ties to potentially coercive labor practices could prove a problem for an industry that is heavily dependent on China, once a new law barring Xinjiang products goes into effect.
- China’s Once-Sizzling Property Market Has Started to Cool — New home prices in China have fallen, and would-be buyers are thinking twice. That’s bad news for the overall economy.
- A Chinese Telescope Did Not Find an Alien Signal. The Search Continues. — China’s astronomers have been initiated into the search for extraterrestrial intelligence with the kind of false alarm that others in the field have experienced for decades.
- Huge Fire Breaks Out at Sinopec’s Shanghai Complex, Leaving 1 Dead — Firefighters were able to put the blaze under control, but it caused residents of a nearby neighborhood to flee their homes.
- TikTok says its American traffic is going through Oracle servers, but it retains backups. — The app is trying to convince the U.S. government that it won’t expose Americans’ information to China.
Caixin
- Cover Story: China’s Climate Envoy Says Nations Must Deliver on Their Commitments (Part 1) — Xie’s busy recent schedule has seen him attend the World Economic Forum in Davos at the end of May before traveling to Stockholm for the Ministerial on Climate Action (MoCA), where he sat down for an interview with Caixin.
- Party Tightens Grip on Businesses of Cadres’ Family Members — The Communist Party of China has issued regulations to further tighten its grip on the business activities of senior officials’ family members after a number of corruption cases highlighted shady government-business ties.
- China’s Insurance Watchdog Demands Vigilance Against Corrupt Related-Party Deals — Regulator’s branches should closely monitor insurers that were set up by sprawling financial holding firms or by highly leveraged nonfinancial companies
- In Depth: Trouble at Crypto Hedge Fund Sparks Contagion Fears — Liquidity woes at Three Arrows Capital could create ripple effect in the DeFi industry, analysts say
South China Morning Post
- How the US’ Xinjiang labour law has crippled China’s cotton industry before even entering effect — Even though the Uygur Forced Labour Prevention Act does not take effect until Tuesday, traders in China’s Xinjiang region say losses have been mounting for months, as buyers shun what was once prized as the world’s most expensive cotton.
- China’s coronavirus controls top concern for European firms, who may ‘vote with their feet’ if uncertainty persists — Beijing’s stringent approach to containing Omicron outbreaks is the biggest challenge for European businesses in China for the second year running, a new survey by a business lobby shows.
- HKEX considers opening offices in New York and London as it takes the battle for IPO fundraising to North America and Europe — The expansion to North America and Europe underscores its search for diversification and growth, as it continues to serve as the landing pad for mainland China’s start-ups and companies.
- Incoming Hong Kong leader John Lee unveils team, while Beijing lays out key expectations — Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office lays out five expectations for incoming administration, including tackling housing and addressing wealth gap.
Nikkei Asia
- U.S. reviews China tariffs, possible gas tax pause to curb inflation — Some Trump-era levies serve ‘no strategic purpose,’ Yellen says.
- Companies brace for chaos as Xinjiang import ban starts in U.S. — Shipments from Chinese region barred under rules taking effect Tuesday.
Bloomberg
- Nearly One in Four European Firms Mull Shifting Out of China — Nearly one in four European companies in China are considering shifting their investments out of the country as the ongoing Covid outbreaks and lockdowns dim the outlook for the world’s second-largest economy, a survey showed.
- China Lists Hong Kong Housing Among Big Focuses for Next Leader John Lee — China handed down five big goals for incoming Chief Executive John Lee’s government to meet, as Beijing seeks to cement greater control over the Asian financial hub.
- China’s Alumina Exports Soar to Fill Russian Shortages — China’s alumina exports soared again last month, as buyers in Russia sought to plug a shortfall because of war and sanctions.
Reuters
- China says it tested missile-interception system — China has been ramping up research into all sorts of missiles, from those that can destroy satellites in space to advanced nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.
- Tesla cars barred for 2 months in Beidaihe, site of China leadership meet — Tesla cars will be prohibited from entering the Chinese coastal district of Beidaihe, site of a secretive annual summer party leadership conclave, for at least two months starting on July 1, a local traffic police official told Reuters on Monday.
- Hong Kong’s new government retains finance chief in sign of continuity — Finance Secretary Paul Chan, who is free of U.S. sanctions, is to retain his post in the Chinese-ruled territory.
Other Publications
- BuzzFeed News: Leaked Audio From 80 Internal TikTok Meetings Shows That US User Data Has Been Repeatedly Accessed From China — “I feel like with these tools, there’s some backdoor to access user data in almost all of them,” said an external auditor hired to help TikTok close off Chinese access to sensitive information, like Americans’ birthdays and phone numbers.
- MIT Tech Review: Now China wants to censor online comments — A draft update of rules would dramatically increase the power of China’s censorship machine, but platforms will pay the price.
