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’s Military Is Catching Up to the U.S. Is It Ready for Battle? — The People’s Liberation Army is emerging as a true competitor but Beijing worries about the ability of its troops.
- Australia Boosts Pacific Aid as Efforts Ramp Up to Counter China — U.S. ally to also further support Australian police deployments in Solomon Islands.
- New Guidelines Could Signal Tougher Approach From Foreign Investment Review Body — Cfius, the panel that reviews foreign investment in the U.S. for national-security concerns, has its first-ever enforcement guidelines.
- China’s Battery Champion CATL Keeps Powering Up — Profits are growing rapidly despite rising costs and tensions with the West.
- Chinese Stock Traders Told Not to Disrupt Market Around Communist Party Meeting — Brokers, fund managers received unofficial guidance about trading activity, to reduce market volatility.
- Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index Sinks to April 2009 Low — The index has been undergoing a makeover that has seen it add more Chinese technology stocks, which have been among the market’s biggest losers.
The Financial Times
- China’s GDP blackout isn’t fooling anyone — There is diminishing faith in the few economic indicators that, after years of obfuscation, still see the light of day.
- Beijing’s pivot from market reforms sparks viral debate on economic agenda — Communist party and private sector share an uncomfortable relationship.
- German coalition divided over sale of port terminal stake to China’s Cosco — Greens and FDP urge chancellor not to repeat ‘mistakes of the past’ by selling Hamburg infrastructure to Chinese company.
The New York Times
- Opinion: Biden Just Clobbered China’s Chip Industry — The latest American trade restrictions could significantly set back China’s semiconductor ambitions.
South China Morning Post
- Huawei shuts down less popular office app Link Now as it scales back noncore businesses in fight for survival — The tech giant is pulling back months after warning that it would be making cuts to noncore businesses as it seeks to survive US sanctions.
- German optical giant Zeiss breaks ground on US$25 million plant in Suzhou in vote of confidence in China — Zeiss’ investment bucks the trend of multinationals trying to reduce their dependence on the world’s second largest economy amid its strict zero-Covid policies and geopolitical tensions.
- Hong Kong organisers dismiss suggestion Batman film replaced with Iron Man flick on national security grounds — Event organisers clarify previous decision, say Batman film was pulled because movie’s violent scenes were unsuitable for outdoor screening.
Bloomberg
- China’s Party List May Determine Fate of Central Bank Leaders — Governor Yi, PBOC party chief Guo close to retirement age.
- Chinese Chip Startup Shows Key Gap in Biden Export Curbs — One of China’s most promising chip designers has already navigated through the Biden administration’s export restrictions and concluded it will be able to continue tapping Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to produce its advanced silicon.
- US Eyes Expanding China Tech Ban to Quantum Computing and AI — The Biden administration is exploring the possibility of new export controls that would limit China’s access to some of the most powerful emerging computing technologies, according to people familiar with the situation.
- US Ban on Xinjiang Imports Is Off to ‘Remarkably Good Start’ — Four months into a sweeping ban on imports from China’s Xinjiang region, the top US customs official is signaling confidence that companies are observing the embargo.
Reuters
- Exclusive: China’s CATL slows battery investment plan for U.S., Mexico — Chinese battery giant CATL has slowed its planning for investment in battery plants in North America on concern that new U.S. rules on sourcing battery materials will drive costs higher, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
- U.S. charges 7 in alleged plot to repatriate U.S. resident to China — The United States unsealed criminal charges on Thursday against seven Chinese nationals accused of waging a surveillance and harassment campaign against a U.S. resident and his family, in a bid by the Chinese government to repatriate one of them back to China.
- China’s YMTC denies report it took part in meetings on chip curbs — The company in a statement late on Thursay described the report as “false and sinister,” adding that the report had damaged its corporate image and would have serious adverse effects on the semiconductor industry environment at home and abroad.
The Economist
- New Zealand is toughening up on China — It stands up more to its biggest trading partner than it is given credit for.
- Xi Jinping has no interest in succession planning — The longer he clings to power, the harder it will be to engineer an orderly transition.
- A protester in Britain is beaten up by Chinese diplomats — Will the Chinese consul-general be declared persona non grata?
Other Publications
- Project Brazen: Exclusive: Inside “Steady Stare,” the Trump-era Plan to Monitor All Chinese Students in the U.S. — Around 2019, proponents of a big-data program at the Department of Homeland Security sought to create digital dossiers of every Chinese exchange student in the United States.
- Forbes: TikTok Parent ByteDance Planned To Use TikTok To Monitor The Physical Location Of Specific American Citizens — The project, assigned to a Beijing-led team, would have involved accessing location data from some U.S. users’ devices without their knowledge or consent.
- The Verge: TikTok fires back at Forbes, denies report of a plan to track specific US citizens using its app — TikTok accused Forbes of leaving off a vital part of its statement. TikTok claims the missing part of the quote disproves ‘the feasibility of its core allegation.’
- The Globe and Mail: Why selling HSBC Canada, the country’s most lucrative bank deal in decades, is unusually challenging — The dream scenario Big Six bank chiefs used to salivate over has come true: HSBC Bank Canada, the country’s seventh-largest lender, is up for sale.
