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
- The Problem Plaguing Movies, Concerts and Casinos: China’s Out-of-Reach Spender — Rolling Covid-19 lockdowns in China and fresh political tensions present challenges for American pastime industries like movies, music and gambling.
- Chinese Developers Lean on Government Bond Guarantees as Doubts Persist — Longfor offers first deal under a new program meant to help parts of the struggling real-estate sector.
The Financial Times
- Investors price in $130bn loss on China developers’ dollar bonds — Beijing will need to deploy ‘big bazooka’ to end crisis of confidence among homebuyers, market participants say.
Caixin
- Exclusive: PBOC Likely to Name Zhang Qingsong as New Deputy Governor — The veteran banker enjoys a good reputation within China’s banking industry due to his professionalism, sources tell Caixin.
- Huawei Founder Ren Declares a Battle for Survival — Chinese tech giant must shift focus to profits and cash flow from revenue growth to gird for existential threats over next three years, executive tells employees.
- More Chinese Cities Slash Down Payments to Prop Up Housing Sales — More than 20 municipalities cut down payment requirements by 10–20 percentage points for buyers of second homes.
South China Morning Post
- US adds 7 Chinese aerospace and chip firms to export blacklist — State-affiliated entities involved in chip development and space programme join around 600 other Chinese firms on the list.
- TikTok owner ByteDance quietly launches search app Wukong in China, where Google is banned — ByteDance’s promise of no ads on Wukong could be seen as a swipe at market leader Baidu, which has faced years of controversy over paid listings.
Nikkei Asia
- China throws Europe an energy lifeline with LNG resales — Surplus gas eases Russia’s stranglehold, but gives Beijing outsize influence.
- China developer Logan Group plunges 51% after share trading restart — Debt-saddled company has warned over first-half loss, stock suspended since May.
Bloomberg
- Chinese Nickel Trader Lygend Said to Ready $1 Billion IPO Launch — Lygend Resources & Technology Co., a Chinese nickel producer and trader, is planning to start taking investor orders for an initial public offering in Hong Kong as early as September, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
- BlackRock, UBS Among Funds Cutting China Property Exposure — Asia’s largest high-yield bond funds are steering clear of China’s real estate sector as a worsening liquidity crisis weighs on the debt, according to research firm Morningstar Inc.
- Tesla, Nio Suspend EV Charging Services as China Power Cuts Bite — China’s power crisis is affecting electric-car owners, with automakers including Tesla Inc. and Nio Inc. suspending some charging facilities.
- Hong Kong Supercharges 1938 British Sedition Law to Curb Dissent — Colonial-era offense now overrides free speech laws and is easier to prosecute than China-drafted measure.
Reuters
- China halts more than 20 IPOs sponsored by China Merchants Securities amid probe — The Shenzhen Stock Exchange has suspended 15 IPO plans set for its ChiNext board, while the Shanghai exchange has paused five IPOs targeting its tech-focused STAR Market since last Friday, exchange filings showed.
- Ping An stands by HSBC spin-off call but says it is not an activist investor — Ping An’s top management had not commented publicly on the HSBC spin-off call before Wednesday.
- China’s jobless turn to car boot sales as COVID-hit economy stalls — Once considered too low-status for many, peddling wares on the street has made a comeback as people who lost their jobs or closed down their businesses seek new ways to make a living.
Other Publications
- Associated Press: China broadens visa availability as pandemic concerns ease — China is easing its tight restrictions on visas after it largely suspended issuing them to foreign students and others more than two years ago at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
