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
- Biden Orders Deeper Scrutiny of Foreign Investment in Tech and Supply Chains — A new executive order directs the panel screening foreign investment, Cfius, to look at deals in areas U.S. officials say are of interest to China.
- Chinese Investment Flows to Silicon Valley Venture Funds — New report shows 2022 on pace to be one of the strongest years for investment despite tensions between the two countries.
- TikTok Exec Says Agreement With U.S. Government to Address Concerns Over User Data — Lawmakers express concern over potential Chinese influence of the popular short-video app.
- Biotech May Be the Next U.S.-China Battleground — Investors in Chinese biotech—and perhaps their U.S. clients too—should be prepared for a rough ride.
- China’s Yuan Breaks Key Level Against Dollar — Move came despite China’s central bank sending signals it wanted to slow renminbi’s decline.
- Video: China’s Economy Is Slumping. Here’s What It Means for the U.S. — As the world’s No. 1 trading nation, China’s weak growth could add to problems for the U.S. and other countries.
The Financial Times
- Fortress China: Xi Jinping’s plan for economic independence — Beijing wants to become less dependent on the west — and especially on its technology. But how realistic is this self-sufficiency goal in a connected world?
- White House sounds alert on inbound Chinese investment — Biden signs executive order urging closer scrutiny of deals involving critical technologies.
- US Senate panel approves $6.5bn bill to fund weapons for Taiwan — Move marks first time US would directly finance provision of arms to Taipei.
- Guo Guangchang’s empire under scrutiny as Fosun shares fall — Hong Kong-listed Club Med owner downplays checks by Chinese regulators.
- Ex-owner of Newport Wafer Fab plans to buy back UK semiconductor plant — Drew Nelson orchestrates bid for company as government plans to curb sale to Chinese-owned Nexperia.
- China’s state banks cut deposit rates for first time since 2015 — Move comes after the world’s second-largest economy slashed benchmark lending rates in August.
- Putin and Xi: still partners with ‘no limits’? — Russian and Chinese leaders meet for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine.
- Opinion: Cutting Germany’s risky trade dependence on China — Moves to diversify and rebalance Berlin’s export-industrial complex are welcome. By Alan Beattie
- Opinion: Tencent: Chinese giant needs more than one game approval to flourish — Games companies outside China’s sphere of influence remain a better bet.
The New York Times
- Putin Acknowledges China May Have ‘Concerns’ About the Ukraine War — The two authoritarian leaders have increasingly hostile relations with the West and challenges to their agendas.
- Lawmakers Grill TikTok Executive About Ties to China — TikTok’s chief operating officer, Vanessa Pappas, faced questions about whether the company would ever hand over user data to Chinese officials.
Caixin
- In Depth: New Battlelines Emerge in China’s Shifting NEV Market — As China winds down the generous consumer subsidies which helped its market for new-energy vehicles surpass that of any other country, the landscape is shifting.
- Starbucks to Make China Its Biggest Market by 2025, Surpassing U.S. — American coffee giant pours billions of yuan into 3,000 new stores, a coffee creative park and digital technology innovation.
South China Morning Post
- Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin speak in person for first time since Russia invaded Ukraine — The two leaders meet on the sidelines of the Beijing-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Uzbekistan.
- Chinese Vice-President Wang Qishan expected to attend Queen Elizabeth’s state funeral, diplomatic sources say — Wang Qishan is expected to arrive in London on Sunday, a day before the funeral.
- As TikTok is grilled by US senators over China links, owner ByteDance stays silent — TikTok’s top executive addressed questions on the short video app’s links to China and the Communist Party in a hearing on social media’s impact on Wednesday.
- Shanghai emerges as China’s semiconductor highland with one quarter of nationwide chip value output and most of the talent — Shanghai has emerged as a centre for China’s most competitive chip players, including SMIC and SMEE.
Nikkei Asia
- Analysis: Xi prepares to wave magic wand for more power — Upcoming changes to party constitution will be precursor to bigger changes next spring.
- Biden signs executive order on red flags for foreign investment — Directive focuses on technology, cybersecurity in line with China concerns.
- In swipe at China, EU moves to ban goods made using forced labor — Beijing likely to react angrily to ‘protectionist’ measures.
- U.S. needs satellite constellation to counter China: next space chief — Biden nominee says a more defendable network is crucial in orbit.
Bloomberg
- Big Take: China Wanted GE’s Secrets. Then Their Spy Got Caught — The modern Chinese industrial espionage apparatus — in its organization, scope and ambition — has long been seen as one of the “biggest long-term threats” to US economic and national security.
- China Shuts Down Videos of WHO Saying End of Pandemic in Sight — The World Health Organization chief’s comment that the end of the pandemic is within reach sparked lively online debate — and some censorship — in China, the only major country still trying to stop the spread of the virus.
- Tory MPs Criticise ‘Extraordinary’ Decision to Invite China to Queen’s Funeral — A group of MPs and peers sanctioned by China have expressed serious concerns about the Chinese Government being invited to the Queen’s funeral.
- Hong Kong Wins Banker Commitments to Push Ahead With Summit — Top executives from about 20 leading global firms have committed to flying in for Hong Kong’s financial summit, even as quarantine rules threaten to damp turnout at a conference designed to restore the city’s reputation as a regional hub.
Reuters
- Explainer: How could the U.S. sanction China to deter a Taiwan attack? — Draft U.S. congressional legislation has outlined a full range of punishing sanctions that could be imposed on China over Taiwan, including on President Xi Jinping and other leaders, action to exclude Chinese banks from global markets, bans on U.S. listings of Chinese firms, on imports of Chinese goods and curbs on Chinese energy projects.
- Biden tells foreign investment panel to screen deals for data, cyber risks — U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday directed the committee that reviews foreign investment for national security risks to sharpen its focus on threats to sensitive data, cyber security and areas such as microelectronics and artificial intelligence.
- European investment in China concentrates more on handful of large firms – report — European investment in China is growing more concentrated with a handful of large firms particularly from Germany doubling down on their bets while virtually no new players seek to enter the market, according to a new report by research organization Rhodium Group.
- Tesla weighs reset for China retail strategy even as sales boom — Tesla is reevaluating the way it sells electric cars in China, its second-largest market, and considering closing some showrooms in flashy malls in cities like Beijing where traffic plunged during COVID restrictions.
Other Publications
- The Economist: China’s plunging energy imports confound expectations — A revival would cause problems—and not just for Europe.
- The Economist: China’s property crisis hasn’t gone away: it is getting worse — Officials may have little choice but to bail out the industry.
- The Economist: What is the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation? — Conflicting visions among its growing membership mean it poses little threat to the West.
- The New Yorker: China and the Lore of American Manufacturing — In Ohio’s Senate race, both candidates are employing anti-Asian rhetoric and neglecting to hold corporations to account.
- MIT Tech Review: There’s no Tiananmen Square in the new Chinese image-making AI — The new text-to-image AI developed by Baidu can generate images that show Chinese objects and celebrities more accurately than existing AIs. But a built-in censorship mechanism will filter out politically sensitive words.
