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 Loosens Covid Restrictions as Public Anger Simmers — Local authorities are dismantling some pandemic control measures even as the number of new infections remains elevated.
- Apple Makes Plans to Move Production Out of China — The iPhone maker is looking to further diversify the supply chain that has powered its growth.
- China’s Stock Rally Is Still Vulnerable — Extent of the rise will depend on housing-market revival and the seriousness of the Covid ‘exit wave’.
- Beijing Seeks Positive Spin on Covid Easing as Risks Rise — Rare admission that leadership bent to public anger is latest signal leaders are seeking safe path to reopen economy while avoiding surge in deaths.
The Financial Times
- Australia, China and the judgment of the Solomons — Geopolitical rivalry spills into the South Pacific as Canberra and Washington battle Beijing’s rising influence.
- Covid chaos at Foxconn iPhone plant causes 29% revenue fall — World’s biggest contract electronics manufacturer says Zhengzhou outbreak is now under control.
- Chinese stocks and currency rally on reopening hopes — Renminbi hits 12-week high as Morgan Stanley upgrades country’s equities to ‘overweight’.
- Canada to send more warships through Taiwan Strait in signal to China — Foreign minister Mélanie Joly says Ottawa will play bigger defence role in Indo-Pacific.
- China steps on Washington’s toes as Xi heads to Saudi Arabia — Trip aims to boost Gulf relations five months after US warned Beijing it would not cede Middle East.
- Chinese cities ease Covid restrictions following nationwide protests — President Xi Jinping acknowledged public discontent with lockdowns in closed door meeting with EU officials.
- The humbling of Xi Jinping — Three years of lockdowns, mass testing and Covid detention centres have finally caused public frustrations to boil over in China.
The New York Times
- China Stems Wave of Protest, but Ripples of Resistance Remain — Students, residents, lawyers and workers are still challenging the country’s Covid-19 restrictions, even though the intensity of the political chants has been dialed back.
- Chinese Abroad: Worried, Wary and Protesting — Chinese expatriates in the United States are elated but nervous as they watch the protests at home.
- China Protests Raise Hopes of Activists Abroad — People opposing Beijing over issues like Hong Kong, Taiwan or the persecution of Uyghurs see the moment as an opportunity to find common cause.
- China’s Covid Restrictions Collide With Beijing’s Social Contract — The world’s harshest Covid restrictions exemplify how Xi Jinping’s authoritarian excesses have rewritten Beijing’s longstanding social contract with its people.
- After Fanning Covid Fears, China Must Now Try to Allay Them — Beijing had long warned that the only effective response was testing, quarantine and lockdowns. As it shifts policy, it must change how it portrays the risks.
- How China’s Police Used Phones and Faces to Track Protesters — After a weekend of protests, the authorities in China are using the country’s all-seeing surveillance apparatus to find those bold enough to defy them.
Caixin
- Cover Story: China’s ‘Zero-Covid’ Looks Done. So, What to Expect Next? — Wednesday, Nov. 30 will likely go down as the day that China’s central government finally relented and began shifting away from its almost three-year-long hyper-restrictive “zero-Covid” policy that at times saw hundreds of millions under some form of lockdown.
- Analysis: Guangzhou Becomes Test Case for Coexistence With Covid in China — China’s southern metropolis of Guangzhou this week relaxed a number of tough Covid restrictions including lockdowns and mandatory testing.
- Editorial: Reform and Opening-Up Is Needed to Get China’s Economy Back on Track — Jiang Zemin, who represents the core of the third-generation central government leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), passed away on Nov. 30, 2022. While mourning, people could not help looking back into the past and thinking about the present.
South China Morning Post
- Mainland Chinese courts can handle Hong Kong’s national security cases if defendants cannot find a city lawyer and Beijing bans foreign ones, political heavyweight says — Immigration Department could consider refusing to issue or renew work visas of overseas lawyers, city’s sole delegate to China’s top legislative body says.
- 3 core activists of June 4 vigil group in Hong Kong to face national security trial without jury — Secretary for Justice Paul Lam had expressed concern that if jury was involved, due administration of justice could be impaired.
- Buying ‘guaranteed acceptance’ to elite US universities: the risks and rewards for Chinese students — Chinese students are paying education ‘consultants’ to get them into top US universities by falsifying grades, academic transcripts and personal statements.
Bloomberg
- BYD Has Tesla In Its Sights After a Year of Runaway Growth — The Chinese mass-market electric-car juggernaut is planning two luxury models to fuel its next phase of growth.
- China’s Former CDC Leaders Endorse Rapid Tests, Home Isolation — China should adopt rapid antigen tests for Covid and allow home isolation for those with mild infections, the former top two officials at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said, adding to the drumbeat of pro-relaxation sentiment building in the world’s second-largest economy.
- CEOs Will Have to Reckon With Chinese Machines — The Asian nation’s makers of excavators and diggers are raising their global profile. The likes of Caterpillar should be worried.
Reuters
- China’s Xi unwilling to accept western vaccines, U.S. official says — Chinese leader Xi Jinping is unwilling to accept Western vaccines despite the challenges China is facing with COVID-19, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said on Saturday.
- China’s Covid pivot may be damned by faint praise — It is one thing to stop harsh lockdowns and ease travel restrictions. Persuading households that hoarded $1.9 trillion this year to spend will be far more difficult.
- Improbable bets on break of Hong Kong dollar peg adding up — Market pricing suggests bets on such a shock are building in the hedge fund world, and some traders say it makes a lot of sense.
Other Publications
- NBC News: FBI director defends investigations of Chinese academics in front of university audience — Speaking at the University of Michigan, Wray also said Chinese Americans are “in the crosshairs of the Chinese government,” which tries to recruit them.
- The Washington Post: A more pragmatic Xi Jinping launches a global charm offensive for China — In the six weeks since he secured a new term as the head of the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese military, paving the way for him to rule indefinitely, he has met formally with at least 26 heads of state or government from every continent.
