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
- Heads of FBI, MI5 Issue Joint Warning on Chinese Spying — Officials say Beijing employs large-scale hacking and global network of agents to steal Western technology; U.S. also warns about efforts to influence policy-making.
- China Escalates Efforts to Influence U.S. State and Local Leaders, Officials Warn — American counterintelligence officials briefed municipalities at an event hosted by Senate panel.
- China Police Database Was Left Open Online for Over a Year, Enabling Leak — Cybersecurity experts say error allowed theft of records of nearly 1 billion people, leading to $200,000 ransom note.
- America’s Gridlocked Democracy Struggles to Meet China Challenge — Shoring up semiconductor manufacturing could join the list of issues where Washington seems paralyzed.
- Opinion: We Want to Rebuild U.S. Relations With China — Frank talks between business leaders can help restore trust. By Maurice R. Greenberg
The Financial Times
- Beijing decries India’s ‘frequent’ probes after raid of phonemaker Vivo — New Delhi is putting increasing pressure on Chinese tech groups following border clashes in 2020.
- US and UK intelligence chiefs call for vigilance on China’s industrial spies — Beijing is using ‘every tool’ to steal western technology, FBI director says after MI5 meeting.
- Ardern warns against ‘self-fulfilling prophesy’ of war in Pacific — New Zealand leader says China should not be alienated as it has a ‘crucial role to play’.
- IEA warns on China’s dominance of solar panel supply chain — Concentration of key manufacturing stages could threaten global shift to cleaner energy, agency report cautions.
- How China’s BYD played catch-up with Tesla — Battery expertise and patience have made the group a formidable competitor in the global car industry.
- New Covid variants threaten China’s mRNA vaccine hopes — Homegrown jabs are undergoing trials but may struggle against rapidly mutating virus.
The New York Times
- China Seeks to Pre-Empt Sanctions in Case of Taiwan Clash, F.B.I. Chief Says — Looking ahead to a possible conflict, Beijing wants to shield itself from the kind of economic penalties levied against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, the F.B.I. director says.
- Chinese Police Database Was Unsecured Long Before It Was Seized — The breach is “a big black eye” for the Chinese security apparatus, one expert says, exposing the risk of the state’s vast effort to amass citizens’ personal data.
- Beijing Introduces a Local Vaccine Pass and Urges Older People to Get Shots — The city announced the change months after other countries had put vaccine passports in place.
Caixin
- Samsung and Sony Smartphone-Maker to List in Shanghai — It comes two months after Huaqin Technology Co. Ltd. withdrew an application to list on the city’s Nasdaq-style technology board following regulatory inquiries about its actual technological advantages and financial status.
- China Rolls Out New Measures to Boost Car Sales — Government orders localities to relax rules on used-car sales, mulls extending NEV purchase tax exemption
- Developer Soho China’s Finance Chief Falls Under Insider Trading Probe — Police are investigating the chief financial officer of Soho China Ltd. on suspicion of insider trading of the real estate giant’s shares, an exchange filing has revealed.
South China Morning Post
- China’s top chip maker SMIC says it has never had any Russian clients, allaying concerns over potential new US sanctions — Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp says it has always been operating in compliance with existing trade restrictions.
- How Communist Party membership and state-sector jobs became fashionable choices for young Chinese — Advice on dressing like a government official or Communist Party cadre attracts millions of clicks.
- Jack Ma tours Dutch university to learn sustainable agriculture as Alibaba founder keeps low profile — The retired tech billionaire travelled to Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands to study sustainable livestock farming and fisheries.
- Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi taps Vietnam as production base for Southeast Asia market amid supply chain disruptions at home — Xiaomi, now Vietnam’s No 2 smartphone brand, has been working with Hong Kong-based contract manufacturer DBG to boost the supply of handsets in the region amid supply chain constraints at home.
Nikkei Asia
- Analysis: Xi dispatches Fujian aides to polish up ‘guns and swords’ — Leader turns to decades-long subordinates but Zhejiang faction misses out on promotion.
- China’s solar panel supply chain domination cause for worry: IEA — Paris-based agency warns of ‘considerable vulnerability’ to overdependence.
- U.S. weighs fate of China tariffs as trade war hits 4-year mark — Officials weigh inflation concerns against leverage in negotiations with Beijing.
Bloomberg
- Australia, China Foreign Ministers to Meet at G-20 to Reset Ties — The foreign ministers of Australia and China will meet for the first time in almost three years as the two nations try to reset a relationship that has often been marked by diplomatic tensions and economic tariffs.
- Young Chinese Film Star Takes Government Job as Economy Slows — One of China’s most popular young actors has shuttered his entertainment firm and taken a job with a government-sponsored theater, a move that was greeted by social media users in the Asian nation with understanding given the state of the economy.
- China Is Trying to ‘Ransack’ Western Companies, FBI Head Warns — FBI Director Christopher Wray warned Western companies that China aims to “ransack” their intellectual property so it can eventually dominate key industries, escalating a dispute between the world’s two largest economies over hacking.
The Economist
- Who’s afraid of TikTok? — The world’s most exciting app is also its most mistrusted.
- America rethinks its strategy for taking on China’s economy — The focus is on whether Joe Biden will cut tariffs, but the real action is elsewhere.
- What a tycoon’s trial says about the rot in China’s financial system — Even the charges against Xiao Jianhua have not been made public.
- The diaries of the last British governor of Hong Kong — Chris Patten is as scathing about some compatriots as about China’s Communist Party.
Other Publications
- Associated Press: China lashes out at US, British intelligence services — The United States is “the biggest threat to world peace, stability and development,” China said Thursday, continuing its sharp rhetoric in response to U.S. accusations of Chinese spying and threats to the international order.
- Quartz: How China beat US pharma giant Gilead in the race to create a covid antiviral pill — China is closing in on the finish line on developing its own covid antiviral pill. And it has what looks to be a promising candidate.
- Rest of World: Racist videos about Africans fuel a multimillion-dollar Chinese industry — “Chinese people love watching how other places are not as good as China.”
