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
- U.S. Goes Full-Court Press on China’s Chip Sector — Comprehensive nature of restrictions are clear signal that U.S.-China chip wars are here to stay.
- Chinese Chip Stocks Slump After U.S. Tightens Exports — The Global X China Semiconductor ETF, which tracks 25 Chinese companies, dropped nearly 7% by midday on Monday in Hong Kong.
- Chinese Stocks Slide on Weaker Consumer Spending — Investors also fret about new U.S restrictions on chip exports, more Covid-19 lockdowns.
- Taiwan’s Leader Tells Beijing Armed Conflict Is ‘Absolutely Not an Option’ — In National Day speech, Tsai Ing-wen vows to defend island’s democratic system and double-down on chip dominance while offering to talk with Beijing.
- China’s Covid-19 Lockdowns Deal Another Blow to Consumer Spending — Travel spending and movie receipts fell during the seven-day-long National Day holiday as restrictions spread.
- In Hong Kong, Sanctioned Russian Tycoon’s Superyacht Sparks U.S.-China Spat — The vessel, owned by Alexey Mordashov, prompts U.S. State Department to caution against the use of city as a ‘safe haven’.
- Tesla Breaks Its China Factory Delivery Record but Trails BYD — Chinese EV leader BYD also enjoyed a record month, according to data from China’s passenger car association.
The Financial Times
- Chip embargo: US curbs will arrest development of Chinese tech — Latest restrictions threaten not only entire sectors but Beijing’s broader policy goals as well.
- China chip stocks lose $8.6bn in wipeout due to US export controls — Washington’s restrictions are designed to curb Beijing’s plans for technological self-sufficiency.
- Tesla hits China sales record as Beijing praises Musk’s Taiwan proposal — Morgan Stanley predicts US carmaker has hit its peak in the country.
- Scandal-proof: Chinese tech groups bank on virtual influencers — Computer-generated avatars are a safer option as Beijing cracks down on human celebrities.
- China on high alert as Covid cases rise ahead of Communist party congress — Latest data reveal blow to economy that has been throttled by zero-tolerance virus policy.
- China’s chip industry set for deep pain from US export controls — Experts predict ‘tsunami of change’ for semiconductor industry as Washington wields tools tested on Huawei.
- Cathay Pacific expects reduced flying for at least two more years — Slow recovery highlights Hong Kong’s wavering hub status as pandemic restrictions take toll.
- US warns Hong Kong over oligarch’s superyacht docked in its waters — Chinese territory will ignore ‘unilateral’ sanctions against boat’s Russian owner Alexei Mordashov.
- The US-China chip war is reshaping tech supply chains — Complete decoupling is a fantasy, but component makers are already shifting production.
- US hits China with sweeping tech export controls — Restrictions will limit Chinese companies’ access to advanced computer chips and slow their progress in artificial intelligence.
The New York Times
- China’s Communist Party Congress: What It Means for Business — The opening speech by Xi Jinping, the country’s top leader, could provide clues to policies with broad economic and financial implications. A new leadership team will be chosen.
- Book Review: ‘Chip War’ by Chris Miller — Silicon chips power everything from cars and toys to phones and nukes. “Chip War,” by Chris Miller, recounts the rise of the chip industry and the outsize geopolitical implications of its ascendancy.
- Biden Administration Clamps Down on China’s Access to Chip Technology — The White House issued sweeping restrictions on selling semiconductors and chip-making equipment to China, an attempt to curb the country’s access to critical technologies.
- Opinion: Xi Jinping Is a Captive of the Communist Party Too — It may appear that Xi Jinping has taken over the party, but it’s the other way around. By Kerry Brown
Caixin
- Cover Story: ByteDance Faces Tough Sell Abroad in Bid to Commercialize TikTok — Having captured the gaze of hundreds of millions of people with its short-video platform TikTok, parent company ByteDance Ltd. is now the focus of attention as it struggles to commercialize the app and finally turn a profit amid tightened regulations and rising U.S.-China tensions.
- Top Executive at Two of Huawei’s Business Groups Dies Suddenly — Ding Yun died on Friday morning at the age of 53 after a “sudden illness,” the Shenzhen-based company said in a brief statement the same day. He was also a deputy chairman of its supervisory board.
- In Depth: Does China Really Need That Much More Coal-Fired Electricity? — Southern China’s Guangdong province approved construction of six coal-fired power plants in less than a month with generating capacity of 9.7 million kilowatts, more than the total of capacity installed from 2016 to 2020.
- Boeing 737 Max Takes to Skies in China Four Years After Grounding — Beijing was the first to ground the Max, after two fatal crashes involving the model in October 2018 and March 2019 in Indonesia and Ethiopia respectively.
South China Morning Post
- Shenzhen plans to shower cash on local chip industry to bolster development after intensified US trade restrictions — Move comes as China seeks to accelerate development of local chip industry amid intensifying US trade sanctions.
- Hong Kong’s own national security legislation put on hold for further research, government says — Bill to complement Beijing-imposed national security law removed from schedule for remaining Legislative Council meetings before Christmas.
- Beijing vows stronger laws, clear limits on monitoring e-CNY wallets — User information can only be analysed when digital yuan transactions are suspected of violating laws on money laundering, terrorist financing or tax evasion, Chinese authorities say.
- How a small eastern Chinese city is reshaping its economy to build the country’s next hotspot for video gaming development — Shaoxing, a city in eastern Zhejiang province, is banking on key infrastructure, subsidies and various business-friendly policies to attract world-class video game developers and publishers.
Nikkei Asia
- Taiwan’s Tsai warns China against conflict, touts defense buildup — ‘We will not leave anything to fate,’ president says in national day speech.
- Taiwanese companies in China flocking to Southeast Asia: survey — Shift indicates potential importance of President Tsai’s New Southbound Policy.
- Opinion: China’s Communist Party congress is not just about Xi Jinping — Event will set the tone for economic and foreign policy for the next decade. By Minxin Pei
Bloomberg
- How Biden’s Chip Actions May Be Broadest China Salvo Yet — Washington unveiled sweeping curbs on the way chip companies do business with China’s tech industry, a series of restrictions that together represent some of the strongest actions taken so far to contain the rise of a geopolitical rival.
- ‘No Possibility of Reconciliation’ as US Slams China Chips — The Biden administration’s new restrictions on technology exports to China could undercut the country’s ability to develop wide swaths of its economy, from semiconductors and supercomputers to surveillance systems and advanced weapons.
- China’s Tolerance for Xi’s Unyielding Covid Fight Is Cracking — As most of the world moves on from Covid-19, President Xi Jinping is set to trumpet his strict measures to control the virus at China’s once-in-five-year party congress. The question now is how long they can last.
- Chinese IPOs at Home Surge to Highest Proportion in Two Decades — Chinese firms selling shares for the first time are favoring local exchanges rather than going to more traditional listing venues.
- Xi Convenes Final Party Meeting Before Leadership Congress — President Xi Jinping kicked off the final meeting of China’s top leaders, days before the opening of a twice-a-decade Communist Party congress that’s set to hand him a landmark third term in power.
Reuters
- U.S. aims to hobble China’s chip industry with sweeping new export rules — The raft of measures could amount to the biggest shift in U.S. policy toward shipping technology to China since the 1990s.
- Analysis: How China’s Xi accumulated power, and why it matters in a third term — Xi, 69, is widely expected to break with precedent at the ruling Communist Party Congress that starts Oct. 16 and extend his decade-long leadership for another five years – or beyond.
- Five Hong Kong teenagers sentenced in first security case involving minors — Five teenagers with a Hong Kong group advocating independence from Chinese rule were ordered by a judge on Saturday to serve up to three years in detention at a correctional facility, for urging an “armed revolution” in a national security case.
The Economist
- China wants to change, or break, a world order set by others — It may yet succeed, says David Rennie.
- China is exerting greater power across Asia—and beyond — It has become a master of political and economy leverage.
- China has chilling plans for governing Taiwan — There may be few painless options left.
- China seeks a world order that defers to states and their rulers — Xi Jinping wants less global intrusiveness.
- Why America and Europe fret about China turning inwards — Many observers see it wanting to be less dependent on the world.
- For Western democracies, the price of avoiding a clash with China is rising — It is clear that hard choices loom.
- To show that it can follow global rules, China built its own multilateral institution — But what is the point of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank?
Other Publications
- The Washington Post: Who will succeed Xi Jinping as China’s leader? It’s complicated. — Here are four officials who, if they make it onto the stage in the Great Hall of the People at the meeting’s conclusion, could provide clues about Xi’s degree of control as party leader and China’s president.
- The Information: Jack Ma’s Investment Firm Struggles to Raise Money in China — Yunfeng Capital, a private equity firm Ma co-founded in 2010, is having difficulty raising capital from domestic investors concerned about the political risks of backing him, raising questions about its long-term viability.
- MIT Tech Review: The Chinese surveillance state proves that the idea of privacy is more “malleable” than you’d expect — The authors of “Surveillance State” discuss what the West misunderstands about Chinese state control and whether the invasive trajectory of surveillance tech can still be reversed.
