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.
Paid subscribers automatically have this list emailed directly to their inboxes every day by 10 a.m. EST. Subscribe here.
The Wall Street Journal
- China Agrees to Approve BioNTech’s Covid-19 Vaccine for Foreigners, German Chancellor Says — Olaf Scholz says he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping discussed a pathway for approving the vaccines for the broader population.
- A Biden-Xi Summit Presents Latest Challenge to U.S.-China Ties — Intensifying rivalry looms over what would be the leaders’ first face-to-face meeting since Biden took office.
- Europe’s Car Makers Lean on U.S., China as They Brace for Recession — German auto makers and suppliers say they are losing confidence in the European economy.
- Tiger Global Halts New Chinese Equities Investments — Longtime China investor seeks more clarity before putting more money in Chinese equities.
- Iron-Ore Prices Buckle as China Property-Market Slump Drags On — Party congress in Beijing offers little support for sector that is a key driver of global steel demand.
- Challenges From Iran, China and Russia Top Agenda at G-7 Meeting — Diplomats from the world’s wealthiest democracies plan to denounce Russia’s nuclear threats in Ukraine.
- Opinion: Germany Debates How Much to Rely on China — Commercial independence is difficult for businesses that face a hostile climate in their home country.
The Financial Times
- Scholz says Xi agrees nuclear threats over Ukraine are ‘irresponsible’ — Leaders warn use of atomic weapons would ‘cross a line’ during talks in Beijing.
- China stocks rise over reopening hopes — Market sentiment bolstered by rumours zero-Covid rules could be eased early next year.
- China’s central bank struggles to force tech groups to share user data with state — PBoC attempt to channel personal information through official credit-scoring companies meets opposition.
- Return to Dust — rural Chinese love story hums with emotional truth — Li Ruijun’s delicate film about small kindnesses amid poverty was a hit in China before being taken off screens.
- Lenovo revenues shrink as PC market suffers global downturn — Sales decline for first time in 10 quarters at world’s biggest computer maker.
The New York Times
- 3-Year-Old in China Dies After Covid Restrictions Delayed Care — When the boy’s father asked for help getting his son to the hospital, he was told to put on a mask. Local officials promised to “learn from this painful lesson.”
- In Bid to Show It Is Open, Hong Kong Bends Covid Rules … for Some — Three splashy events this week were meant to prove that the former British colony was still “Asia’s World City.” But Covid exemptions were provided for visitors from overseas, especially the wealthy ones.
- China’s Out-of-Control Rocket Booster Falls in the Pacific — For the fourth time, the country’s space program used a 23-ton launcher that made an uncontrolled re-entry back to Earth.
Caixin
- A Father’s Nightmare Rescuing a Three-Year-Old Under Covid Lockdown — It was another in a series of cases in which patients failed to receive urgent medical care amid strict Covid-19 controls, stirring public outrage.
- State Railway Operator Posts Record Loss on Covid Disruptions — Red ink increases 36% for the first three quarters, and profit almost vanishes for the cash-cow high-speed Beijing-Shanghai route.
- German Investment Into China Has Increased During Covid-19 — Germany’s foreign direct investment into China has been on the rise since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, with inflows hitting 3.19 billion euros ($3.12 billion) in the second quarter of 2022.
South China Morning Post
- Tencent defends WeChat privacy, saying claims of unauthorised logins a ‘misunderstanding’ — Claims of unauthorised logins on WeChat, some occurring at midnight when users were asleep, were a ‘misunderstanding’ related to a technical issue, according to a statement from the app’s operator Tencent.
- Xi Jinping urges Germany to resist grip of ideology on Berlin-Beijing ties — ‘It is easy to destroy political mutual trust, but it is difficult to rebuild it,” Xi tells German chancellor on state visit.
- Apple adds Pegatron as new iPhone 14 supplier in India in shift from China — Taiwan-based contract manufacturer Pegatron has begun assembling the latest iPhone 14 in India, a move that comes as Apple’s key manufacturing hub in China was placed under an abrupt Covid-19 lockdown.
Nikkei Asia
- U.S. chip curbs spark recruitment rush in China’s tech sector — Alibaba and others see chance to snap up engineers from foreign players.
- Xi’s removal of Hu points to ‘common prosperity,’ not Taiwan invasion — Chinese president’s dissent-free cabinet hints at unpopular decisions ahead.
- How Intel plans to rival TSMC and Samsung as a chip supplier — Geopolitics could give U.S. tech giant’s contract chipmaking strategy a boost.
Bloomberg
- Nissan May Snub Renault Revamp Over Sharing Tech With Geely — Nissan Motor Co. is willing to walk away from a deal with Renault SA to re-balance their alliance amid concerns the French carmaker wants to license hundreds of jointly developed patented technologies to other players, including new Chinese partner Geely, people familiar with the negotiations said.
- Hong Kong Comeback Party Goes Better Than Feared as Markets Soar — Hong Kong’s big week aimed at relaunching the city didn’t get off to a great start.
- US Audit Inspectors Finish On-Site China Work Ahead of Plan — US audit officials completed their first on-site inspection round of Chinese companies ahead of schedule, according to people familiar with the matter, a sign of progress in the closely watched process to prevent the delisting of hundreds of stocks from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to Yum China Holdings Inc.
- ‘Sloppy’ Talk on China Threat by US Is Decried by Some Skeptical Experts — Almost everyone in Washington wants to be a China hawk now, making it a lonely town for some well-placed skeptics.
Reuters
- China confirms orders for 140 Airbus jets worth $17 bln — They are all pre-existing orders, with some included in an order for 292 jets announced earlier this year, Airbus said on Friday.
- China says U.S. must ‘take responsibility’ for breakdown in climate ties — Nearly 200 countries are about to gather in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt for another round of global climate negotiations, but diplomatic tensions between the two biggest sources of climate-warming greenhouse gas have threatened to overshadow the meeting, known as COP27.
- China may soon shorten quarantine for inbound travellers – sources — China may soon shorten COVID-19 quarantine requirements for inbound travellers from the current 10 days to seven or eight days, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.
- Former U.S. military pilot arrived in Australia from China weeks before arrest – lawyer — The pilot, Daniel Edmund Duggan, 54, was arrested in Orange in a rural part of New South Wales state in October by federal police acting on a U.S. request for his arrest.
The Economist
- The Chinese city that covid forgot — Chinese experiences of the zero-covid policy vary greatly. That helps Communist Party bosses.
- Former military pilots from the West are being lured to China — Are they giving the Chinese air force a leg up?
- Fosun’s big asset sale marks the end of an era in Chinese business — The sprawling group is offloading many of its prize investments.
- The never-ending campaign against graft in China — New foot-soldiers are on the way.
- Xi Jinping wants ready soldiers and loyal generals — His new military commission looks to many like a Taiwan war council.
Other Publications
- The Atlantic: Who’s Really at the Wheel of Tesla in China? — So far, Elon Musk’s electric-vehicle business has been mutually beneficial and his relationship with Beijing cozy. But the CCP may have other plans.
- The Washington Post: Europe nears a reckoning in its ties to China’s security operations — That judgment will make extraditions from the continent to China significantly more difficult, if not near-impossible, according to lawyers, human rights activists and legal scholars.
- Quartz: Xi Jinping’s reelection has made Tiger Global more nervous about doing business in China — The American investment firm is pausing investment in Chinese equities.
- The Los Angeles Times: The world needs chromite and lithium. Afghanistan has them. What happens next? — Potential subterranean riches have also sent foreign powers such as China, Russia and Iran scrambling for a share — but not the U.S., which officially refuses to deal with the rulers of the new “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.”
