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
- Inside a Chinese iPhone Plant, Foxconn Grapples With Covid Chaos — As it adheres to Beijing’s strict epidemic controls, Apple’s biggest smartphone assembler scrambles to keep production lines moving.
- TuSimple Probed by FBI, SEC Over Its Ties to a Chinese Startup — Government authorities are investigating whether the U.S. self-driving trucking company defrauded investors by financing and transferring technology to China-backed Hydron.
- Jeep Owner Stellantis’s China Joint Venture to File for Bankruptcy — End of the road for unprofitable venture that made and distributed the Jeep brand in the world’s biggest auto market.
- China’s Factory Slowdown Worse Than Expected Under Weight of Covid Policies — Falling global demand for Chinese exports adds to gloomy outlook for world’s second-largest economy.
- China Stocks Suffer Second-Worst Month of Outflows as Foreigners Pull $7.9 Billion — International investors pulled about $7.9 billion from China’s equity markets in October through the Stock Connect program, the second-largest monthly drawdown in the history of the trading link.
- EU Looks to Follow Tough U.S. Action on Forced Labor — Companies are under increasing pressure to probe their supply chains.
- U.S. Pensions Take a Fresh Look at China — Strains between the two global superpowers are leading many fund managers to reassess their approach.
- Covid-19 Rules Take Shine Off Hong Kong’s Bid to Reopen — City invites global executives to financial summit and revives rugby tournament, but business leaders see little impact.
The Financial Times
- Hong Kong to explore legalising retail crypto trades — Change in stance contrasts with Chinese mainland and takes on Singapore as regional financial hub.
- Scholz must send a clear message on his visit to Beijing — Germany’s chancellor is right to open channels with China but it is vital he makes his security and economic priorities clear.
- Workers flee Covid restrictions at China’s largest iPhone factory — Authorities say company will go ‘all out’ to help employees return home.
- US-China decoupling ‘expensive’, warns Japan chipmaker executive — Kioxia monitoring risk of retaliation by Beijing over Washington’s export controls.
- Japan’s empty villages are a warning for China — Beijing should take note of the risks posed by a property bubble and demographic changes.
- Europe wakes up to collateral damage from US-China rivalry — Germany’s debate on decoupling from Beijing highlights the perils of walking the tightrope between the great powers.
- The rise and fall of China’s rustbelt aluminium powerhouse — How Zhongwang’s overexpansion left the manufacturing giant bankrupt with $64bn in debt.
- China inches forward against duopoly of Boeing and Airbus — World’s two largest passenger aircraft manufacturers face biggest threat from collapse of Chinese travel, say experts.
- Li Qiang, Xi’s right-hand man — How will his business-friendly reputation fit with the Chinese president’s aims?
- Opinion: We must prepare for the reality of the Chip Wars — The question of how far decoupling will go depends on China’s next move as well as the extent of new US rules.
The New York Times
- China Launches Its Space Station’s Third and Final Module — Completing the Tiangong space station is the latest step in Beijing’s effort to match and eventually surpass the United States in space exploration.
- Chinese Stocks Fluctuate After a Bruising Week — The volatility appeared to reflect how investors have been rattled by the Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s tightening grip on power.
- Did Germany Learn From Its Russia Trouble? The Test May Come in China. — On the eve of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s first trip to Beijing, concerns are growing that economic dependence on China is leaving his country vulnerable — again.
- G.O.P. Senator’s Report on Covid Origins Suggests Lab Leak, but Offers Little New Evidence — The report, signed by Senator Richard Burr, foreshadows a new wave of political wrangling over Covid’s origins if Republicans gain control of the House or Senate.
Caixin
- Cover Story: The Evolution of Crime in China — In the past decade or so, the number of violent felonies has plunged while new forms of misdemeanors emerged, creating new challenges for the legal system.
- Foxconn Taps Alternative Sites as Covid Drives Staff to Flee World’s Biggest IPhone Plant — The Zhengzhou plant is home to the world’s largest iPhone assembly production lines with over 200,000 workers.
South China Morning Post
- China’s foreign capital outflow quickened pace, as yuan suffers longest losing streak since 1994 — Overseas investors held 3.4 trillion yuan (US$468 billion) of yuan-denominated bonds at the end of September, down from 3.48 trillion yuan in August, amid a weaker currency and a poor economic outlook.
- Hong Kong remains stuck in recession as economy shrinks by 4.5 per cent in third quarter — Total exports drop 15.5 per cent, while imports fall 16 per cent as trade continues to worsen.
- Hong Kong ‘back in business’, finance chief Paul Chan tells fintech event as government proposes raft of measures to promote virtual-assets industry — FinTech Week is the first of a series of mega events Hong Kong is set to host to mark its return following almost three years of Covid-related isolation.
Nikkei Asia
- China’s companies rewrite rules to declare Communist Party ties — More mainland-listed companies acknowledge ‘Xi thought’ in corporate constitutions.
- Apple supplier Foxconn’s key China plant hit by COVID measures — Industry sources say iPhone output affected as workers can’t enter production lines.
Bloomberg
- Hong Kong Moves Toward Legalizing Retail-Investor Crypto Trading — Hong Kong laid out a master plan to become a top Asian crypto hub offering legalized retail trading and digital-asset exchange-traded funds, part of a wider push to restore the city’s credentials as a financial center.
- China Covid Cases Top 2,500, Rising the Most in Over 80 Days — China reported 2,675 new local Covid cases for Sunday, up 802 from a day earlier, marking the biggest nationwide surge in infections since Aug. 10.
- US Asks Europe to Consider Export Controls on China — Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union.
- Hong Kong Office Vacancies Hit Record after Covid Curbs Diminished City’s Appeal — Lingering Covid curbs and closed border with mainland have diminished city’s appeal as a regional hub and gateway to China.
Reuters
- Bowing to investor demand, funds ramp up ex- China emerging market strategies — Money managers are launching emerging market or Asia products with no exposure to China to meet increasing demand for such strategies from global investors wary of rising policy and geopolitical risks in the world’s second biggest economy.
- He Lifeng: China’s expected new economic tsar has big shoes to fill — He Lifeng, head of China’s state planning agency, is likely to succeed the country’s economic tsar Vice Premier Liu He in March, but may struggle to maintain his predecessor’s policy clout.
- Macau reimposes COVID curbs as China loosens visa rules for gambling hub — Macau authorities reinstated tough COVID-19 curbs including locking down a major casino over the weekend after a handful of cases were detected, even as China announced a loosening of visa rules for visitors to the world’s biggest gambling hub.
Other Publications
- Associated Press: In Xi’s China, even internal reports fall prey to censorship — Chinese journalists and researchers file secret bulletins to top officials, ensuring they get the information needed to govern, even when it’s censored. But this internal system is struggling to give frank assessments as Chinese leader Xi Jinping consolidates his power.
- The Washington Post: Trade takes a back seat to national security in Beijing and Washington — Chinese president emphasizes security to Communist Party Congress, just weeks after U.S. bars sales of advanced computer chips and chip-making tech to China.
- Foreign Policy: A Republican Midterm Win Will Boost U.S. China Strategy — Divided government could be just what is needed to unite Americans around the administration’s China policies.
- Semafor: A former employee’s complaint prompts Republican calls to investigate The China Project, an American news company — Her lawyers at the non-profit firm Whistleblower Aid cite her experience and her research to claim that there is “a reasonable belief” that The China Project has been influenced by the Chinese government and is acting as an “agent of a foreign principal” under federal law.
- The China Project: A response to baseless allegations — We have been accused by U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of being unregistered agents of the CCP. Meanwhile, the CCP has blocked us in China and we are officially labeled as U.S.-backed “anti-China forces.” Here is our response to the absurd allegations being made about our loyalties and motivations.