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
- Jiang Zemin, Former China Leader, Dies at 96 — Communist Party elder’s death comes as Chinese leadership contends with rare nationwide unrest over zero-Covid policies.
- China’s Jiang Zemin at Home and Abroad — The Chinese leader presided over an era of transformation and worked to restore his country’s international standing.
- Volkswagen, Honda Halt Production at China Plants Due to Covid-19 Curbs — Concerns of supply-chain disruptions emerge amid outbreak, protests.
- Car Makers Face Bumpier Road in China — Germany’s automotive powerhouses look exposed as rise of electric vehicles upsets established order in world’s largest car market.
- U.S. Not Seeking Decoupling From China, Commerce Chief Says — Gina Raimondo says aim is to promote trade with China without jeopardizing U.S. technology.
- China’s Swelling Nuclear Stockpile Makes It a Growing Rival to U.S., Pentagon Finds — Beijing’s military expansion puts it on track to keep Washington from intervening in a crisis with Taiwan, an annual assessment concludes.
- China’s Latest Rocket Sends New Crew to Finish Tiangong Space Station — Crew of the Shenzhou-15 spacecraft will conduct scientific experiments and complete the station, marking a feat of China’s space program.
Zero-Covid Protests
- China Officials Soften Tone on Covid Curbs Amid Protests — Health officials cite less deadly Omicron variant in urging lighter lockdowns.
- China Protests Mushroom Around the World — Overseas Chinese rally in solidarity with mainland demonstrators.
- Behind Chinese Covid Protests, Economic Worries Simmer Among Youth — Demonstrations, while mainly about Covid controls, also reflected young people’s anxiety over job prospects, raising stakes for Beijing to reignite growth.
- Protests in China: What to Know as Xi Jinping Maintains Covid Controls — The demonstrations against the country’s ’zero Covid’ policy pose a significant challenge to the Communist Party.
The Financial Times
- Jiang Zemin, president who ruled China after Tiananmen massacre, dies at 96 — Communist leader oversaw radical reforms and formalised two-term limit.
- Jiang Zemin, influential president of China, 1926-2022 — The business-friendly leader was regarded as less dictatorial than his predecessors.
- Nato holds first dedicated talks on China threat to Taiwan — Transatlantic security body discussed how to make Beijing aware of consequences of any military action.
- China enlists Alibaba and Tencent in fight against US chip sanctions — Chinese government steps up push to use Risc-V in move aimed at boosting domestic production of semiconductors.
- Chinese companies set up in Singapore to hedge against geopolitical risk — More businesses are ‘Singapore-washing’ as US-China relations deteriorate.
- China set to expand nuclear arsenal to 1,500 warheads by 2035, US says — Expansion of forces comes as Washington grows increasingly concerned about rival powers.
- HK IPOs: healthcare opportunity provides pocketful of Sunshine — Demand has been weak for Hong Kong listings — a factor that should temper the Chinese insurer’s price expectations.
Zero-Covid Protests
- Guangzhou eases restrictions despite worsening Covid outbreak — US ambassador urges Beijing not to interfere with protests against coronavirus lockdowns.
- China’s high youth unemployment stokes student Covid protests — Lockdowns triggered demonstrations but economic anxiety threatens to drive further unrest.
- Companies will find it hard to diversify away from China Covid shock — So much of global supply chains and manufacturing ecosystem is tied to the ‘world’s factory’.
- China’s dire Covid predicament — Beijing should begin to move from tight controls to mass vaccination.
- Restless Beijingers rise up against Covid controls — Residents of the city’s tower blocks are banding together to oppose quarantine curbs.
The New York Times
- Jiang Zemin, China’s Leader After Tiananmen Square Protests, Dies at 96 — Mr. Jiang, a wily and garrulous politician, presided over a decade of meteoric economic growth in the post-Tiananmen era.
- U.K. Backs Giant Nuclear Plant, Squeezing Out China — The British government said it would acquire a 50 percent stake in the new power project and buy out China’s investment.
Zero-Covid Protests
- What China’s Covid Protesters Are Calling For — Protests against Covid restrictions have evolved into broader demands. Here’s what videos show about what demonstrators want — and the risks.
- The Long Odds Facing China’s Protesters — Popular protests are more easily begun than ever before, but they are more likely to dissipate, too.
- Migrant Workers Fuel Protests Over China’s ‘Zero Covid’ Restrictions — Although security forces have reasserted control in many cities, rebellions against Beijing’s strict Covid rules have rocked the southern city of Guangzhou this week.
- Protests Stretch China’s Censorship to Its Limits — Days later, videos of chants and confrontations are still visible on the Chinese internet. It’s a sign of how a groundswell outmatched the world’s best internet control system.
Caixin
- Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin Dies at 96 — Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin died Wednesday due to multiple organ failure while suffering from leukemia, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.
- Analysis: The Controversial Role of Residential Committees in China’s Covid Enforcement — While residential committees also carry out mass testing and organize patient transfers within communities, multiple legal professionals told Caixin that the enforcement measures constitute a violation of the law as these groups do so without legal and public authorization.
- Cover Story: China’s Housing Recovery Will Require Rebooting the Economy (Part 3) — The $2.5 trillion economic pillar threatens to shrink as much as 44%, forcing regulators and developers to adapt to a new normal.
- Former Head of China Development Bank Branch Kicked Out of Communist Party — Fu Xiaodong, who was president of CDB’s Henan unit, accused of accepting bribes and turned over to prosecutors, graft busters say.
South China Morning Post
- Hong Kong national security law: Beijing may identify pool of lawyers to handle cases after leader requests interpretation of legislation — Beijing may consider the option of identifying a group of designated lawyers to handle national security cases in Hong Kong, going beyond the local government’s request for China’s top legislative body to shut out overseas counsel unless they are based in the city, according to sources.
- Controversy over Hong Kong government’s legal arguments for Beijing’s interpretation of NSL remains unresolved in pro-establishment camp — City’s first justice minister Elsie Leung has written private note to friends saying she backs the judges’ decision.
- Legal experts predict foreign lawyers will be barred from national security cases involving seized assets if Beijing interprets law — If Beijing ends up banning foreign lawyers from arguing in national security cases, it could go beyond four offences listed under law, experts say.
- Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club secures new 3-year lease for premises, although duration of tenancy reduced, national security clauses added — Richburg said the new version contained other provisions which were now standard in all government leases, including allowing the authorities to terminate it at any time with three months’ notice, or immediately if in the interests of national security.
Bloomberg
- NYC Becomes One Billionaire Family’s Haven From China Property Crash — Soho China’s founders shifted much of their fortune out of the country before controls tightened and the market imploded.
- Top China Security Agency Targets ‘Hostile Forces’ Amid Protests — China’s top law enforcement body pledged to crack down on “hostile forces” and their “sabotage,” comments that appeared intended as a warning to protesters angry about Covid-19 policies and to provide justification for government efforts to suppress dissent.
- Half of China Firms Had Covid Cases This Month, Beige Books Says — The coronavirus is rapidly spreading across China and hitting production further, with more than half of firms reporting a case among their employees this month, according to a new survey.
- Opinion: With Jiang Zemin’s Death, Xi Can’t Risk a Repeat of the Past — The passing of the former president will summon the ghosts of 1989. That doesn’t mean Beijing has to echo the mistakes of three decades ago.
Reuters
- Obituary: China’s Jiang Zemin confounded doubters, mended U.S. ties — Plucked from obscurity to head China’s ruling Communist Party after the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989, former Chinese President Jiang Zemin was expected to be just another transitional figurehead, destined to be a footnote in history.
- Analysis: Apple supply chain data shows receding exposure to China as risks mount — Apple Inc’s wide exposure to Chinese manufacturing, notable both for its low costs and rising risks, has receded since the COVID-19 pandemic began, company supply chain data shows.
- Analysis: Republicans cry weakness, others see sense in Biden’s China protest response — The administration of President Joe Biden has drawn Republican fire for its cautious response to nationwide protests in China against COVID-19 lockdowns, with some lawmakers accusing it of failing to seize a historic moment.
Other Publications
- Nikkei Asia: China’s chip industry fights to survive U.S. tech crackdown — Battered by sanctions, Huawei leads the way in stealthily building a domestic semiconductor supply chain.
- The Economist: Jiang Zemin, China’s unlikely strongman — China’s president from 1993 to 2003 oversaw a wave of economic change—but not much political reform.
- The Economist: Across the Taiwan Strait, another lockdown protest — Taiwanese voters give the Democratic Progressive Party a kicking.
- Foreign Affairs: Xi Jinping in His Own Words — What China’s Leader Wants—and How to Stop Him From Getting It. By Matt Pottinger, Matthew Johnson, and David Feith
- Foreign Affairs: China’s Underestimated Leader — The Legacy of Jiang Zemin. By David Shambaugh
Zero-Covid Protests
- 1843 Magazine: What happened to the man who led the chants against Xi Jinping? — The story of the Shanghai protester who shocked the world.
- Foreign Policy: China’s Police Are Catching Up to Protesters — An initially soft approach was probably due to confusion, not policy.
- The Guardian: ‘This feels so much like Hong Kong’: territory’s solidarity with Chinese uprising — Veterans of Hong Kong’s 2019 protests see echoes in mainland’s anti-Covid anger, but fear a similar outcome.
- ChinaFile: China in Protest — A ChinaFile Conversation.
