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 Likely to Name U.S. Specialist as Next Ambassador to Washington — Expected appointment is part of gradual effort by Beijing to dial back aggressive diplomacy, improve global image.
- China’s Reopening Comes in the Nick of Time for Luxury Stocks — A boom in spending on luxury goods by Americans and Europeans masked weak demand from Chinese shoppers last year. The trend could flip in 2023.
- Video: U.S. vs. China: The Race to Develop the Most Advanced Chips — After working for years to catch up on U.S. technology, China has developed a chip that can rival Nvidia’s powerful A100. WSJ unpacks the processors’ design and capability as the two superpowers race for dominance in artificial intelligence.
The Financial Times
- UK and Japan to sign defence pact to counter China threat — Rishi Sunak and Fumio Kishida will discuss Britain’s bid to join a free trade bloc.
- The China reopening trade — The big banks are tempted.
The New York Times
- Online Anger Over China’s Covid Pivot Shows Widening Social Split — The Communist Party’s efforts to limit discord over its sudden “zero Covid” pivot are being challenged with increasing rancor, including from its own supporters.
Caixin
- China’s Banking Regulator Appoints First Vice Chairwoman — Cong Lin, previously director of the CBIRC’s Fujian province office, has replaced a retiring deputy.
- Ex-Insurance Bailout Fund Official Hid Assets Overseas, Beijing’s Probe Shows — A corruption investigation has found that Fu Fei traded favors for gifts and failed to disclose his children’s residency status in Hong Kong.
- Billionaire Founder of Troubled Hanergy Under Arrest — Li Hejun, once China’s richest man, taken away Dec. 17, days before remainder of his solar energy business finally ran out of gas.
- Airlines Overwhelmed by Travel Boom After China Ditches Quarantine — The number of flights into and out of the mainland is growing, but demand is far outstripping supply and ticket prices are soaring.
South China Morning Post
- Founder of Chinese energy firm Hanergy Li Hejun reportedly detained by police — Li has previously been banned from acting as a director in Hong Kong after a 2015 share price crash where his company lost almost half its value in minutes.
- China shelves port visas and visa-free transit for Japanese and South Koreans — A day after suspending regular visa applications for travellers from the two countries, Beijing imposes more retaliatory restrictions.
- China’s semiconductor sales fall 21 per cent in November as worldwide chip demand continues decline for third consecutive month — That decline in China marked the biggest percentage drop among the world’s major semiconductor markets, as economic headwinds continued to hammer worldwide chip sales.
- Why did Lego choose Vietnam, not China, to build first carbon-neutral factory? — Toy behemoth’s move reflects how like-minded multinational firms are diversifying supply chains away from what has been known for decades as the world’s factory.
Bloomberg
- Biden Push to Spur Solar Production Gets $2.5 Billion Boost — Korean conglomerate Hanwha Solutions pledged to invest more than $2.5 billion in US solar manufacturing, a boost to the Biden administration’s efforts to reduce the nation’s dependence on China for its panel supply.
- China’s Qin Gang Defends African Lending on His First Trip — China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang rejected accusations that the money his nation lends to Africa is a “debt trap” on his first official trip since he was appointed last month.
- China’s Push for Cheap Covid Drugs Rebuffed by Merck, Pfizer — Top US makers of Covid drugs appear to be pushing back on China’s efforts to get them to cut their prices, underscoring the challenges the country faces in giving its vast population easy access to antivirals.
- New US House China Panel to Study ‘Greatest Geopolitical Threat’ — The 16-member panel will be chaired by Representative Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, an ally of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s who introduced legislation last year to ban TikTok.
Reuters
- Protesting Tesla China buyers vow more pressure over price cuts they missed — Dozens of Telsa owners protested at a delivery centre in Shanghai on Tuesday, vowing to raise pressure on the electric car maker after it declined to offer them rebates on price cuts the U.S. firm made last week and that they missed out on.
- New U.S. House creates committee focused on competing with China — The House voted 365 to 65 in favor of a resolution establishing the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, which will investigate the issue and make policy recommendations.
- Germany’s ties with China could change fundamentally – SPD leader — Germany would be forced to cut ties with China in the way it has with Russia should China attack Taiwan, the leader of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) told the weekly Die Zeit in comments published on Wednesday.
Other Publications
- The Globe and Mail: Hong Kong refuses to reveal details of secretive ‘deradicalization’ program for former protesters — Since November, 2021, hundreds of mostly young people who took part in anti-government protests in Hong Kong have participated in a “deradicalization” program designed to “enhance their sense of national identity” and guide them “back on the right track.”
- Foreign Affairs: China’s Epidemic of Mistrust — How Xi’s COVID-19 U-Turn Will Make the Country Harder to Govern. By Lynette H. Ong
- Foreign Policy: The Chinese Communist Party Wants the Property Bubble Back — Personal and political fortunes were made in two decades of real estate madness.
- Rest of World: China’s version of Starlink is government-backed — and has global ambitions — A constellation of companies has sprung up in recent years to power China’s satellite internet plans.
- MIT Tech Review: China’s Paxlovid cyber scams are everywhere — As China’s struggles with covid treatment supply, frauds are running wild—targeting desperate people in search of medicine for themselves or their loved ones.
