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
- Xi Sought to Send Message to Biden on Taiwan: Now Is No Time for a Crisis — In call ahead of Pelosi visit, Chinese leader indicated that Beijing had no intention of going to war, according to people close to China’s decision-making.
- The Bursting Chinese Housing Bubble Compounds Beijing’s Economic Woes — Home sales and prices are dropping in many cities across the country after rising for years, and the damage is spreading.
- China’s State-Owned Travel Retailer Returns With Slimmed Down IPO — China Tourism Group Duty Free slashes deal target to around $2 billion, but still eyes biggest Hong Kong IPO this year.
- For China’s Chip Champion, the Easy Part Is Over — SMIC, a pandemic beneficiary, now must deal with slowing demand and unstable politics.
- Five U.S.-Listed Chinese Companies to Delist from NYSE — The firms include China Life Insurance, PetroChina, China Petroleum & Chemical, Aluminum Corp. of China and Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical.
- Huawei Revenue, Profitability Continue to Slide Amid U.S. Restrictions — Revenue has been falling since 2020 as Western restrictions hamper sales of core products.
The Financial Times
- Huawei’s sales freefall slows as cloud business expands — Chinese tech group has been reeling since US imposed export controls on it in 2020.
- Chinese state-run groups to voluntarily delist from Wall Street — Departures come as Washington and Beijing escalate dispute over audits.
- South Korea disputes China’s account of foreign minister talks — Countries offer contrasting versions of missile defence policy as tensions increase.
- China’s top chipmaker says geopolitical tension adds to industry ‘panic’ — SMIC chief warns high inflation and a cyclical downturn in chip demand are slowing growth.
- Luxury watch prices plummet on weak Chinese consumer confidence — Second-hand market for high-end goods battered by Beijing’s strict adherence to zero-Covid.
- China seeks to display its growing military might in Taiwan drills — Deterrent exercises also reveal ability to mobilise more quickly, experts say.
- Glencore cuts ties with Chinese trader over missing $500mn of copper — Global trading groups have stopped supplying Huludao Ruisheng following the scandal.
The New York Times
- China’s Options for Punishing Taiwan Economically are Limited — The economic bans that China imposed on Taiwan for hosting Speaker Nancy Pelosi were not especially painful. Increasing the pressure could hurt China’s own economy.
Caixin
- In Depth: Bailouts Multiply as Pressure Mounts to Stabilize China’s Housing Market — Efforts to halt the slump in China’s housing market are gathering pace as local governments, banks, state-owned enterprises (SOEs), asset management companies, and shareholders pump money into unfinished projects and cash-strapped developers.
- Senior Executive of Embattled Baoneng Under Investigation — Huang Wei arrested July 31 after trying to flee China following probe of ICBC’s Zhou Jie, a former colleague.
South China Morning Post
- China’s suspension of climate talks with the US puts decarbonisation timeline, methane reduction targets and research at risk — Cooperation on methane emission reductions and technology development could be at risk, even as both countries continue making progress on their own, according to climate experts.
- Didi Chuxing’s electric car maker files for bankruptcy, ending the joint venture started with Li Auto four years ago — Beijing Judian Travel Technology, which is 51 per cent owned by Didi and 49 per cent by Li Auto, filed for bankruptcy on Thursday.
- Seoul walks fine line as Washington puts pressure on South Korean firms’ chip manufacturing on mainland — The Chips and Science Act enables Washington to dangle nearly US$53 billion in incentives to lure more semiconductor manufacturing to the United States.
Nikkei Asia
- China chip champion SMIC’s profit falls 25% on lockdowns — Contract chipmaker logs revenue growth, keeps capex plans unchanged.
- Hong Kong population drops by record on China’s grip, COVID curbs — Exodus that started in 2020 picks up pace as 113,000 move abroad.
Bloomberg
- Mercedes, CATL Partner on $7.6 Billion Hungary Battery Plant — Mercedes-Benz Group AG will join China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. in building a battery factory in Hungary with an investment of as much as 7.3 billion euros ($7.6 billion), with some of Europe’s leading automakers set to become customers too.
- Huawei Books First Sales Rise Since US Sanctions Hit Its Phones — Huawei Technologies Co. reported its first quarterly sales rise since the end of 2020, as the Chinese telecom gear giant fights to survive the US blacklisting that sank its smartphone business.
- China Solar Billionaire Gets Richer After US Sanctions Hoshine — After the US government barred imports of Hoshine Silicon products, Luo Liguo and his family have only gotten richer — and they’re expanding operations in Xinjiang.
- Hong Kong Bans Film Over One-Second Scene of 2014 Protests — Hong Kong censors have banned an award-winning animation from being shown over a one-second scene depicting the 2014 pro-democracy protests, local media reported, in the latest sign of free speech curbs in the finance hub.
Reuters
- Latvia, Estonia withdraw from China cooperation group — Latvia and Estonia withdrew from a cooperation group between China and over a dozen Central and Eastern European countries on Thursday, following in the footsteps of Baltic neighbour Lithuania which withdrew last year.
- Chinese screenwriter vows to seek retrial after losing harassment case — A Chinese woman who accused a well-known host on state broadcaster CCTV of sexual harassment said on Thursday she would seek a retrial, a day after having her case rejected at the appeal stage by a Beijing court.
Other Publications
- The Economist: Tencent is a success story bedevilled by the splinternet — WeChat, they snoop, no one wins.
- The Economist: How the crisis over Taiwan will change US-China relations — The showdown looks set to usher in a perilous new era of hostility.
- The Economist: The nuclear arsenals of China, India and Pakistan are growing — But the countries are not in an arms race—yet.
- MIT Tech Review: China has censored a top health information platform — DXY is the latest victim of a polarized social media environment in China, where scientific debates are increasingly becoming ideological conflicts.
- The Information: TikTok’s $4 Billion Advertising Machine Is Messy Behind the Scenes — TikTok wants to grow its ad revenue to rival that of Meta, Google and other competitors. But internal turbulence in the advertising department could complicate those plans, as sales staff chafe against aggressive revenue targets and a lack of transparency from management.