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
- Rio Tinto Forges Deal With China for $2 Billion Iron-Ore Mine — Miner’s partnership with Baowu Steel comes after Chinese investment in Australia fell amid worsening in diplomatic ties.
- Starbucks Plans 3,000 New China Stores Despite Sinking Sales From Covid Policies — The coffee giant targets 9,000 stores in China by 2025 even as sales dropped sharply this year amid Covid-19 lockdowns and weakening consumer spending.
- China Evergrande’s Other Spending Spree—on Soccer—Is Also Running Into Trouble — With longtime champions now losers and probes into youth-soccer match-fixing, a brand builder has become a burden.
- Tencent Gets China’s Approval for Its First Game in More Than a Year — The tech giant unveiled the game—‘Health Defense’—at an event last year, but approvals were halted amid a regulatory crackdown.
- Global Oil Demand Undermined by China Lockdowns, IEA Says — Oil demand has remained surprisingly robust in other nations despite high inflation.
- Video: How China and India Help Russia’s Economy by Buying Oil — Russia is making as much as $20 billion in average monthly oil sales this year, compared to $14.6 billion last year.
- Chinese Investment Bank CICC Plans Large Capital Raise to Bolster Business — Bank shares fell after it said it wants to raise as much as $3.9 billion amid competition from foreign rivals.
The Financial Times
- The battle behind the UN report on China’s Xinjiang abuses — Staff at human rights office pushed former high commissioner to release findings despite resistance from Beijing.
- Tencent: Chinese giant needs more than one game approval to flourish — Games companies outside China’s sphere of influence remain a better bet.
- Bank of East Asia downplays concerns over executive’s arrest — Chen Zhiren was reportedly detained by Beijing police in July over bribery allegations.
The New York Times
- Europe Plans to Ban Goods Made With Forced Labor — While it does not explicitly mention Xinjiang, the western Chinese region where Uyghurs are believed to be pressed to work in camps, the proposal is widely seen as being aimed at Beijing.
- A Uyghur Author and Translator Were Detained. Now, Their Novel Speaks For Them. — Writing and translating “The Backstreets,” a book about the oppressive environment faced by Uyghurs in China, was a danger to those involved.
- Xi Jinping Heads to Central Asia in First Foreign Trip Since 2020 — Xi Jinping, who is expected to meet with Vladimir Putin, will seek to project confidence as a global statesman at a time of grave challenges at home.
- Opinion: China Is Running Covert Operations That Could Seriously Overwhelm Us — The West isn’t nearly prepared enough for the scale and complexity of China’s all-of-nation covert offensive. By Nigel Inkster
Caixin
- Chinese Miner Joins Vale in Building Second Nickel Refining Plant in Indonesia — Huayou Cobalt’s project in the country again makes use of an extraction technique known for causing environmental damage.
- European Energy Crisis Boosts Demand for China-Made Electric Blankets — Heaters and other electric appliances have become hot products for customers in Europe who don’t want to freeze this winter.
South China Morning Post
- Taiwan’s semiconductor output to grow 20 per cent this year on chip-security concerns — Global fears of semiconductor scarcity have ramped up pressure on Taiwan’s chip production to meet overseas orders, while fears of a potential military clash with mainland China are also weighing on the industry.
- Twitter whistle-blower reveals staff feared China agent could collect user data — The firm’s ex-head of security Peiter ‘Mudge’ Zatko says the FBI had told company that there was at least 1 Chinese agent working there.
- Malaysian billionaire Lim Kok Thay, boss of Genting Group, revealed as final bidder for a prized Macau casino licence — The entry of Genting into the fray may strike fear into the hearts of existing licence holders vying to keep a foothold, said one analyst.
- PwC Hong Kong, KPMG China are first firms to host US regulator for audit inspections of mainland firms, sources say — Inspectors of the US-based Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) have not yet arrived in the city but are expected soon.
Nikkei Asia
- China moves to shut out foreign medical equipment makers — Beijing pushes domestic agenda in market dominated by overseas companies.
- China scrubs starvation reports during Xinjiang virus lockdown — Beijing removes online posts about people eating foliage, lack of medical care.
- Hong Kong tycoon Richard Li’s insurance unit revives stalled IPO — Asia-focused FWD Group shelved plans for $3bn U.S. listing last year.
Bloomberg
- Big Take: How Chinese Exporters Are Using Mexico to Get Around US Tariffs — China has been called the world’s factory. Now, as the costs of trade rise, companies there are also exporting white-collar managers to set up and run operations in places such as Vietnam, Thailand and Mexico.
- US Senate to Wrestle With Bill That Would Boost Taiwan Ties — US lawmakers will debate a bill Wednesday to boost ties with Taiwan and give it more military hardware to deter a Chinese invasion. In Washington, where politicians often jockey to show who’s toughest on Beijing, the legislation is making the White House queasy.
- Bank of East Asia China Executive Detained on Bribe Charge — A senior executive of Bank of East Asia Ltd.’s China unit has been detained on suspicion of accepting bribes, according to a report by Cailian.
- Opinion: The Holes in America’s China-Style Industrial Policy on EVs and Batteries — The law is too focused on shutting out Beijing, which will ultimately hold the US back from expanding its own supply chain. By Anjani Trivedi
- Opinion: A US-China Battle on the Moon Is Possible, and Avoidable — As global space ambitions grow, there will be inevitable conflicts over lunar territory unless nations take steps now to find common ground for cooperation. By Adam Minter
Reuters
- How China became big business for Twitter — A Reuters review of publicly available government tenders, budget documents and promoted tweets from 2020 to 2022 shows local government authorities and Chinese Communist Party propaganda offices for cities, provinces and even districts across the country have flocked to Twitter to buy ads.
- U.S. weighs China sanctions to deter Taiwan action, Taiwan presses EU — The United States is considering options for a sanctions package against China to deter it from invading Taiwan, with the European Union coming under diplomatic pressure from Taipei to do the same.
- Germany drawing up new China trade policy, vows ‘no more naivety’ — Germany’s economy minister said on Tuesday the government was working on a new trade policy with China to reduce dependence on Chinese raw materials, batteries and semiconductors.
- Analysis: China poised to shake up economic leadership as reformers bow out — China’s next economic team, by contrast, may be dominated by domestically groomed Xi loyalists who lack the international savvy, academic polish and independent-mindedness of the current team.
- China rallies support over Xinjiang report at U.N. rights meeting — But initial support for Beijing’s so-called joint statement at the U.N. Human Rights Council was thinner than some observers had expected – a fact that might embolden China’s critics.
Other Publications
- The Economist: China’s government is mass-collecting DNA from Tibetans — It doesn’t bother to hide its aim: social control.
- The New Yorker: Why Hasn’t the U.N. Accused China of Genocide in Xinjiang? — A new report from the Human Rights Office found “widespread arbitrary deprivation of liberty of Uyghyrs and other predominantly Muslim communities.” Some activists think it didn’t go far enough.
- Associated Press: Whistleblower: China, India had agents working for Twitter — Twitter’s former security chief told Congress Tuesday there was “at least one agent” from China’s intelligence service on Twitter’s payroll and that the company knowingly allowed India to add agents to the company roster as well.
- Foreign Affairs: Time Is Running Out to Defend Taiwan — Why the Pentagon Must Focus on Near-Term Deterrence. By Michèle Flournoy and Michael Brown
- The Intercept: Tibetan Police Bought Thermo Fisher DNA Equipment, Chinese Government Documents Show — The sale comes as privacy group Citizen Lab alleges authorities have collected DNA from up to a third of the Tibetan population.
- The Atlantic Council: Sand in the silicon: Designing an outbound investment controls mechanism — An outbound investment mechanism must be narrowly targeted, clearly defined, non-duplicative of existing tools, scoped proportionately to administrative capacity, and paired with meaningful multilateral engagement with allies and partners.