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
- Sri Lanka’s Debt Crisis Tests China’s Role as Financier to Poor Countries — Developing world faces a credit crunch, but the biggest lender of all has been slow to cooperate with Western-style rescues.
- SEC’s Gensler Casts Doubt on Prospects for China Audit Deal — Commission also advanced measures intended to make it easier for investors to weigh in on company affairs.
- Yellen Says She Will Push China to Restructure Debts of Developing Countries — Beijing’s role as a creditor to many countries around the world has come under fresh scrutiny following an uprising in Sri Lanka.
- Shanghai Lockdown Concerns Rise Even as Covid Outbreak Eases Across China — Persistence of virus in country’s most economically important city stokes anxiety.
- Ericsson Boosted by Demand for 5G Equipment but Warns of Rising Costs — Telecom-equipment giant’s move de-risk supply chain eats into quarterly margin.
- Opinion: Why the Chinese Communist Party Is Destroying My Village — Suppression of dissent and local corruption drive a plan to force thousands out of their homes. By Chen Guangcheng
The Financial Times
- ‘Exponentially’ risky China leaves venture capital funds starved of cash — Beijing’s tech crackdown and heightened political risk are freezing fundraising rounds for small and midsized groups.
- China second-quarter GDP: five things to watch — Friday data release will help put a price tag on the cost of Xi Jinping’s pursuit of ‘zero-Covid.’
- UK steelmakers outraged at plan to ease anti-dumping measures on China — Trade Remedies Authority has proposed ending restrictions on import of ‘rebar’, used to strengthen concrete.
The New York Times
- China’s Surveillance State Encounters Public Resistance — Beijing’s swift move to censor news about one of the largest known data breaches shows keen awareness of how major security lapses can harm its credibility.
Caixin
- In Depth: Why China Still Doesn’t Have an mRNA Shot — In a race to develop advanced Covid inoculations, Chinese vaccine-makers lack technical expertise, ingredients, production equipment and delivery system.
- Analysis: China’s Chipmaking Hub Beats Covid Chaos With Closed-Loop Strategy — Closed-loop management and almost uninterrupted logistics have helped many chip companies keep their factories up and running in Wuxi.
- Four Things to Know About China’s Henan Rural Bank Scandal — Customers of six small lenders, all linked to a shadowy investment firm in Henan province, have been denied access to tens of billions of yuan of their savings since April.
South China Morning Post
- Hong Kong protests: veteran activist ‘Grandma Wong’ jailed for 32 weeks for role in 2 unauthorised assemblies — Alexandra Wong Fung-yiu, 66, was sentenced at the Eastern Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to two counts of taking part in an unlawful assembly.
- Chinese premier says discrimination against job applicants who have had Covid will be punished — Premier Li Keqiang calls for equal rights for all during cabinet meeting, and says the government must do everything possible to stabilise employment.
- Chinese word processor WPS accused of censorship after author says she was locked out of 1.3 million-character document — The software from Kingsoft Corp has been mired in controversy since an author said she was locked out of her own document stored on the cloud platform.
Nikkei Asia
- China’s college grads despair over worst job market in decades — Youth unemployment hits record levels in COVID-hit economy.
- Uniqlo owner raises profit forecast despite China woes — Casualwear brand pushing ahead with aggressive store expansion.
- Analysis: Dramatic final curtain on special Abe-Xi relationship — Chinese leader pays unusual respect to his arch rival of 10 years.
Bloomberg
- China Studies Ending Australia Coal Ban on Supply Fear — Chinese bureaucrats studying the energy outlook are proposing to end a near two-year ban on Australian coal as tensions begin to ease and on concerns supply may tighten when Western-led sanctions on Russian energy kick in.
- Wuxi-Backed Chinese Biotech Cstone Is Said to Weigh Sale — Cstone Pharmaceuticals, a Hong Kong-listed biotechnology company focused on developing cancer drugs, is exploring strategic options including a sale of the business, according to people familiar with the matter.
- Is China Stumbling Into Its Own Mortgage Crisis? — A rapidly spreading protest — borrowers refusing to make payments on unfinished homes — threatens to rattle the financial system.
- Opinion: Biden Has Right China Policy, Wrong Framing — Casting the rivalry as a struggle between democracy and autocracy risks undermining all the good that the administration’s actual policies are doing. By Minxin Pei
Reuters
- FDA delays decision on BeiGene’s cancer drug on China COVID curbs — China-based drug developer BeiGene said on Thursday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has delayed a decision on its cancer drug as COVID-19 curbs in the country prevented the regulator from conducting inspections.
- Exclusive: Barclays seeks entry into China’s $4.3 tln asset management market – sources — Barclays’ majority-owned China asset management venture will be set up via its unit Barclays Investment Managers (BIM), which currently has operations in Europe and Japan, the people said.
- Morningstar cuts ‘several’ hundreds of China jobs, moves ops elsewhere — Some staff will be transferred in the coming months to Mumbai, Toronto, Madrid, or Chicago – its global headquarters, a company spokesperson separately told Reuters, adding most of them are involved in “providing support to global operations”.
Other Publications
- The Washington Post: White House wants transparency on American investment in China — After more than a year of debate, the White House has achieved a consensus among relevant government agencies on an approach to legislation that mandates notification but empowers the president to go further.
- The Economist: Xi Jinping has nurtured an ugly form of Chinese nationalism — It may prove hard to control.
- Associated Press: Solomons leader: Chinese base would make his people targets — Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said Thursday that his country’s new security pact with Beijing would not allow China to build a military base on the South Pacific nation and make his citizens “targets for potential military strikes.”
