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
- Janet Yellen Expects EV Subsidy Rules to Prompt New Trade Deals — Treasury secretary says Japan, EU would need new pacts covering mineral sourcing for batteries.
- The Art Behind Supply Chains Is Front and Center at a Museum Exhibit — From Amazon’s Echo to an assembly line in China, the work behind the scenes is on display at the Museum of Modern Art.
- Video: Why NASA and China Don’t Collaborate in Space — U.S. astronauts aren’t allowed on China’s new Tiangong space station.
- Opinion: TikTok Is Bad, but WeChat Is Worse — Beijing uses the popular app to steal data, censor, propagandize and spread disinformation in the U.S. By Seth D. Kaplan
The Financial Times
- China’s palace politics: Xi loyalists compete for power — A new landscape of political divisions is forming at the top of the Chinese Communist party.
- Chinese migrant workers face crackdown for ‘malicious’ protests over unpaid wages — Officials side with employers against labourers seeking overdue new year pay amid economic malaise.
- Shipping hurt by weak demand for Chinese goods — Carriers are skipping ports in China as international orders fall and supply chain problems persist.
- Red Memory — enforced forgetting and the legacy of the Cultural Revolution — Tania Branigan’s intimate stories of survivors capture a traumatic decade for many that still informs modern China.
The New York Times
- Natural Gas Shortages Hit China as Temperatures Plunge — Local governments starved for cash after enormous spending on costly “zero Covid” measures cannot afford to keep up adequate supplies of gas.
South China Morning Post
- European Space Agency says it has no plans to send astronauts to China’s Tiangong space station — The comments by the ESA’s director general are the first indication it is no longer interested in working with China on space exploration.
- Drilling starts at China oil giant’s controversial Ugandan field — First rig commissioned at CNOOC Uganda’s Kingfisher oilfield as more than 70 African civic groups predict environmental peril.
Nikkei Asia
- China’s chip self-sufficiency drive in need of factory investment — Instead venture capital goes to fabless chip design startups in 64% of cases.
- China steps up approvals for foreign financial companies — U.S. players account for majority of authorizations since last autumn.
Bloomberg
- ASML Warns Excessive Export Controls Could Inflate Chip Costs — ASML Holding NV Chief Executive Officer Peter Wennink warned excessive control measures could lead to higher costs for chipmakers, as the US asks allies from Japan to the Netherlands to help limit China’s access to critical semiconductor technologies.
- China Formally Arrests Nine Over Covid Zero Protests in Beijing — China formally arrested nine people in connection with a wave of Covid protests that swept the country in November, a human rights group said, even as Beijing unwinds the virus curbs that prompted the demonstrations.
Reuters
- China says COVID deaths, severe cases have fallen over 70% since peak — Critically ill COVID-19 cases in China are down 72% from a peak early this month while daily deaths among COVID-19 patients in hospitals have dropped 79% from their peak, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday.
- U.S. sees some Chinese companies helping Russia’s Ukraine effort -source — The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “What we’re seeing is non-lethal military assistance and economic support that stops short of wholesale sanctions evasion.”
Other Publications
- The Washington Post: Opinion: Mike Gallagher chairs a vital House committee. Its only focus: China. — To qualify for the “marathon” competition with China, the United States must “win the sprint” right now. By George Will
