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
- China Calls for Cease-Fire in Ukraine — Shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bellicose speech on Wednesday, China urged the Kremlin to deescalate.
- Expats Shun China Over Covid Policies, Forcing Foreign Firms to Scale Back — Quarantines, lockdowns and prolonged school closures have turned a once-coveted assignment into a hardship posting.
- China Meets With Boeing, Raising Hopes for 737 MAX Flight Resumption — Chinese regulators’ official media outlet said the meeting signaled progress in recertifying the jet after accidents in 2018 and 2019.
- Chinese Port Lease Near U.S. Troops’ Australian Training Ground Draws Fresh Scrutiny — Australia’s prime minister says agreement for Darwin Port will be reviewed.
- Electric-Car Demand Pushes Lithium Prices to Records — Driven by a surge in Chinese electric-vehicles sales, the sharp rise in a key commodity for batteries could slow adoption of EVs globally.
- U.S. Spy Agencies Haven’t Kept Pace With Threats, Senate Report Says — The little-known National Counterintelligence and Security Center needs a clear role and sufficient resources, the Intelligence Committee says.
- Video: How China’s Military Drills Could Choke Off Taiwan’s Internet — Taiwan has 14 submarine cables that connect the island to the rest of the world.
The Financial Times
- European businesses forced to ‘reduce, localise and silo’ in China — EU chamber of commerce says members’ engagement ‘can no longer be taken for granted’ in Asian superpower.
- China approves six niche tech ETFs just days after application — Unusually rapid move follows US decision to place export ban on semiconductor technologies.
- Tencent chooses health over wealth in gaming return — China’s most valuable company is struggling with video game restrictions in its home market.
- US lawmakers escalate pressure on Chinese chipmaker YMTC — Democrats and Republicans urge White House to put semiconductor company on blacklist.
- The Taiwanese chip billionaire squaring up to China — Robert Tsao pours $100mn into defence to make sure ‘we are all ready to resist’ a Communist invasion.
- China After Mao by Frank Dikötter — the grand deception — A detailed unpicking of the illusion China’s rulers perpetuate that the country’s economic growth has been driven by reform.
The New York Times
- European Interest in China Investments Wanes — Spending by European companies on new factories and other “greenfield” investments, long a key source of capital and technology for the Chinese economy, is falling steeply.
- ‘We’re on That Bus, Too’: In China, a Deadly Crash Triggers Covid Trauma — A bus heading to a quarantine facility crashed, killing 27. The Chinese public saw themselves in the victims: a country being held hostage by the government’s harsh policy.
Caixin
- Chipmaker Sanan Denies Another Executive Detained as Crackdown Deepens — In an exchange filing on Tuesday, Sanan acknowledged that Ren Kai was under investigation but said online reports that a different executive had been detained at their office earlier that day were false.
- In Depth: The Shadowy Businessman Behind the Henan Bank Swindle — Lü Yi built a massive business network on billions of yuan in fraudulent loans and turned rural banks into personal ATMs. Then he vanished.
- Cosco Shipping to Order 15 More Containerships — Vessels will cost $2.9 billion and be built by an affiliated shipyard as the state-owned giant expands its fleet amid heavy supply chain demand.
South China Morning Post
- In one day, three former Chinese police chiefs are each jailed for more than a decade for corruption — Gong Daoan, Deng Huilin and Liu Xinyun were sentenced over bribery charges following claims of disloyalty against President Xi Jinping.
- China’s EU chamber warns ‘ideology is trumping the economy’ as zero-Covid sets up worst-case scenario — The EU Chamber of Commerce in China does not expect the Chinese border to fully reopen until the second half of 2023, and says ‘China is losing the allure that it used to have’.
- Tourists could need fewer Covid tests and have easier access to museums and theme parks in Hong Kong, but restaurants may still be off the menu — Government source says list of no-go places for visitors could be modified to allow trips to museums and amusement parks.
Nikkei Asia
- Russia becomes China’s discount ‘gas station’: Ukrainian experts — Western sanctions give Moscow no alternatives for critical tech imports.
- China’s property market woes fuel shift to wealth investments — Households may divest $18tn from housing into funds, equities by end of decade.
- Vietnam’s battle to climb the global value chain — The country earns global factory status but fears it will remain an ‘assembly platform.’
- China launches graft probe into another chip ‘Big Fund’ exec — Widening crackdown reaches nonexecutive director at foundry SMIC.
Bloomberg
- China Leading Race to Make Technology Vital for Green Hydrogen — Chinese factories can produce electrolyzers at a fraction of the cost of US and European competitors, giving them an edge in the race to manufacture the key technology for unlocking green hydrogen.
- China’s Vast 14,000-Bed Covid Camp Revealed in Drone Footage — China has built a massive Covid-19 isolation center made up of row upon row of temporary buildings over a vast expanse in the country’s south, as officials continue to treat the virus as a threat that needs to be stamped out.
- Taiwan’s Exporters Struggle as Demand from China Falls — Taiwan’s exporters are feeling the pain of China’s economic weakness, with the global slowdown and escalating geopolitical tensions also taking their toll on Asian tech powerhouse.
Reuters
- Most of Kansas professor’s U.S. conviction for hiding China ties tossed — A federal judge on Tuesday tossed most of a University of Kansas chemical engineering professor’s conviction for concealing work he did in China while conducting U.S. government-funded research.
- U.S. agency adds China Unicom, Pacific Networks to national security threat list — The designations are under a 2019 law aimed at protecting U.S. communications networks.
- European business group warns of loss of confidence in China — The report, which touched on issues from Taiwan to trade, said, for example, that China should refrain from “erratic policy shifts”, deepen cooperation with the European Union and increase international flights.
Other Publications
- The Economist: China’s rulers seem resigned to a slowing economy — Gone are the days when they led the world in recession-busting.
- The Atlantic: The Imprisoned Uyghur Novelist You Need to Read — Perhat Tursun’s The Backstreets, which reveals the persecution and indignities suffered by his people, landed the writer in trouble with the Chinese authorities.
- Associated Press: US needs to reform efforts to stop enemy spies, report says — A new Senate study warns that U.S. spy agencies’ efforts to stop China and other adversaries from stealing secrets are hampered by miscommunication and a lack of money and staff at the office intended to coordinate those efforts.
- Quartz: Chinese EV battery makers are aggressively expanding production in Europe — Sales of electric vehicles in Europe are growing quickly: One in ten new cars sold in the EU now solely runs on batteries, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.
