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
- Yellen Calls for Trade Overhaul to Diversify From China — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called for a reorientation of the world’s trading practices during a speech in South Korea.
- Tech Bill Aims to Block U.S. Aid for Companies That Build Advanced Chips in China — Draft legislation headed for Senate vote would provide roughly $52 billion to boost U.S. semiconductor manufacturing.
- Chinese Regulator to Fine Didi More Than $1 Billion Over Data-Security Breaches — Move ends yearlong investigation and will free firm to pursue a second listing in Hong Kong.
- China Warns U.S. Against Nancy Pelosi Visit to Taiwan — Beijing says its relations with Washington will be severely damaged if the U.S. House speaker visits the self-governed island to show support.
- Cyber Companies and Universities Are Building ‘Cyber Talent Hub’ — Cyber firms will make practical training on their technology available to students in an attempt to address a skills shortage. The effort comes as fears mount that global competitors like China are outpacing the West on talent.
- Opinion: Biden’s China Tariff Cuts Would Hurt the U.S. — They wouldn’t knock down inflation but would wallop American businesses, workers and national security. By Robert Lighthizer
The Financial Times
- Nancy Pelosi to visit Taiwan next month — Trip will be first in 25 years by a Speaker of the US House of Representatives.
- Semiconductors: US subsidy vote more about fate of Chinese chipmakers — Strict new standards could mark the beginning of another round of financial woes for China’s producers.
- Schumer aims for Tuesday vote on scaled-back chipmakers’ bill — Senator majority leader hopes to pressure US lawmakers as industry confronts China’s growing power.
- Manolo Blahnik wins 22-year legal fight over China trademark — Ruling will enable luxury British shoemaker to sell in country directly for first time.
The New York Times
- Outbreaks in China Prompt Lockdowns and Fears of Economic Woes — The emergence of more infectious subvariants of the coronavirus has triggered mass quarantines, including 2,000 tourists stranded in a popular beach resort town.
- Chinese Banking Scandal Tests Faith in Communist Party’s Leadership — The disappearance of ordinary savers’ money, and the government’s seemingly indifferent response, could pose a major test for the Communist Party’s legitimacy.
- U.S. aid chief criticizes China’s ‘absence’ in a food crisis stoked by Russia’s invasion. — Samantha Power, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, criticized China for hoarding fertilizer and grain while millions of people in East Africa face starvation.
Caixin
- Exclusive: China Close to Setting Up Iron Ore Trading Giant — New government-backed enterprise would wield a bigger stick in dealing with exporters in Australia and Brazil while managing foreign mining investments.
- Another Chip Investment Bigwig Faces Corruption Probe — Lu Jun, ex-chief of the firm that administered China’s biggest chip investment fund, IS under investigation for ‘suspected severe violations of discipline and law.’
- Suppliers of Delinquent Developers Complain They Can’t Pay Their Bills — Suppliers to China’s real estate industry have complained that they can no longer afford to pay their bills because some developers, including the deeply indebted China Evergrande Group, still owe them money.
South China Morning Post
- Inter Milan boss and Suning founder’s son Steven Zhang liable for US$255 million in landmark verdict against China’s keepwell undertakings — The verdict marked a victory for offshore creditors seeking to recover defaulted bonds and money owed by debtors or guarantors based in mainland China, known as keepwell undertakings.
- China asks European leaders to meet Xi in November. But will they accept? — The proposed date would likely be right after the 20th party congress, expected to be held in October.
- School district home rents drop by the most in 2 years as more Hong Kong residents head for the emigration queue — Property agency data show that areas with underpopulated schools saw the biggest rent declines through the pandemic.
Nikkei Asia
- Pakistan’s Belt and Road revival at risk as Gwadar protest brews — Ambitious local leader threatens to create headaches for PM Sharif and China.
- China demands U.S. cancel potential arms sale to Taiwan — Pentagon had approved estimated $108m deal last week.
- China startup makes large, flexible solar panels in industry first — Japanese-developed perovskite technology goes into mass production.
Bloomberg
- Rich Chinese Worth $48 Billion Want to Leave — But Will Xi Let Them? — Some 10,000 wealthy Chinese are looking to leave in the wake of punishing lockdowns and an economic slowdown. The question is whether they’ll be able to.
- China Disputes Report Xi Invited Europe Heads to Beijing Meeting — China flatly denied a report that President Xi Jinping had invited top European leaders to meet him in Beijing later this year, and was still awaiting their response, as tensions fray between Beijing and the bloc.
- China’s Cyber Isolationism Has Severe Security Implications — The country can’t go it alone on internet security. Allowing professionals to freely engage with the world is crucial.
Reuters
- Chip designers warm to U.S. bill despite big benefits to Intel — A rift had emerged last week within the chip industry itself, with some players concerned the final language of the legislation would provide disproportionate support to manufacturers like Intel while doing little to support chip designers like Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Qualcomm Inc and Nvidia Corp.
- Allies seek to follow U.S. lead on Xinjiang forced labor ban – U.S. official — U.S. allies appear committed to following Washington’s lead banning forced labor goods from China’s Xinjiang region, a senior U.S. official told Reuters on Monday.
- Chinese consortium puts workers on forced leave after Guinea halts Simandou — Guinea’s mines minister on July 3 ordered all work on the Simandou project – the world’s largest undeveloped iron ore deposit – to stop after WCS and Rio Tinto missed an extended deadline to agree a joint venture with the government.
- How China became ground zero for the auto chip shortage — Automotive chip order times remain long around the world, but brokers like Pang and thousands like him are focusing on China, which has become ground zero for a crunch that the rest of the industry is gradually moving beyond.
Other Publications
- Politico: Intel, others seek weaker China rules in chips bill — Chipmaking giant Intel and its peers have been pressing lawmakers to not constrain their business in China as they authorize billions of dollars in subsidies for the firms to produce computer chips in the United States.
- The Guardian: Jackie Chan-produced action movie films in devastated Syrian city — The decision to produce a film glorifying China’s Communist party in a town destroyed by civil war has been described as ‘appallingly bad taste.’
- Grid News: China has an unemployment problem. Why nearly 20 percent of young job-seekers can’t land a job. — New national data shows that recent graduates in China are having a hard time finding work. Experts say that’s likely to be a lasting challenge for the Chinese government.
- BBC: Why did MI5 name Christine Lee as an ‘agent of influence’? — MI5’s public naming of Christine Lee, and a recent unprecedented news conference with the FBI, mark a shift in the approach being taken against the security threat posed by China.
- PIIE: China’s top ranked corporations are not as opaque as they may seem — More than half of the combined revenue of the 130 Chinese companies on the 2021 Fortune Global 500 is created in listed entities that are majority-owned subsidiaries of the unlisted parent groups and are in general more transparent and subject to greater market discipline.
