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
- Russia Turns to China’s Yuan in Effort to Ditch the Dollar — Moscow has jettisoned longstanding concerns about giving China too much leverage over its economy.
- U.S. Aims to Pull Ex-Soviet Republics From Russian, Chinese Orbits — Blinken to meet Central Asian officials in Kazakhstan, as the countries try to stay neutral in the Russia-Ukraine war.
- China Data-Transfer Law Adds to Strains on Multinationals — Foreign and domestic companies have been racing to meet Beijing’s audit deadline.
- Huawei Export Licenses Could be Revoked by U.S. — Chip companies say restrictions on products supplied to the Chinese telecom will deny the U.S. industry revenue for research.
- Weak Oversight of Foreign Farmland Deals Sparks Concern Amid China Purchases — Bipartisan lawmakers criticize Agriculture Department for failing to assess penalties for reporting lapses.
- White House Says No Consensus on Covid Origin — Comments follow Energy Department assessment that pandemic likely started with leak from Chinese lab.
- Pentagon to Reap Rewards From $53 Billion Chips Act — Program aims to bolster national security by cutting reliance on imported chips.
- Move Over EVs, Hybrids Are Hot in China — Success of Li Auto underlines risks of an all-or-nothing approach to the shift to electric vehicles.
- New Home Sales in China Pick Up After a Long Slump — Country’s 100 largest developers saw sales grow 14.9% in February on a yearly basis after declining for 19 months.
- Hong Kong Lifts Citywide Mask Mandate After Almost Three Years — The city was one of last places to require masks outdoors as well as indoors but is now seeking to revive its economy.
- Opinion: A Domestic Agenda for the House Select China Committee — To promote competition, the panel should look at education, antitrust, mining and chip policies. By Adam J. White
The Financial Times
- Chipmakers receiving US federal funds barred from expanding in China for 10 years — Commerce department imposes new rules on beneficiaries of $39bn programme.
- Hong Kong ditches Covid mask mandate after 945 days — Government drops most visible pandemic control as it seeks to revive financial hub.
- Chinese factories launch charm offensive for buyers after Covid isolation — Local governments send delegations to global trade fairs to woo back customers and fight decoupling.
The New York Times
- China Moves to Erase the Vestiges of ‘Zero Covid’ to Deter Dissent — The ruling Communist Party is waging an ambitious propaganda campaign to rewrite the public’s memory of its handling of the pandemic, which included some of the harshest restrictions in the world.
- Biden Administration to Impose Financial Restrictions for Chip Makers — Guidelines to be released Tuesday will include firm financial requirements to try to ensure that chip makers don’t waste federal money.
- What We Know About the Lab Leak Theory and the Origins of Covid — Scientists and spy agencies have tried to determine where the coronavirus originated, but conclusive evidence is hard to come by and the nation’s intelligence agencies are split.
- In Central Asia, Blinken Will Urge Distance From Russia, and Ukraine War — Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken is making the first trip by a Biden administration cabinet official to the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.
Caixin
- How China’s Investment Funds Fared in 2022 — The country’s mutual funds navigated a tumultuous year, with AUM hitting a record $4 trillion while the rate of return averaged a negative 8.5%.
- U.S. Approved 70% of China-Related Export License Applications in 2022 — Agencies processed 40,000 requests with the goal of preventing advanced technology from falling into the hands of the Chinese military, according to the Department of Commerce.
South China Morning Post
- Beijing’s ‘reunification’ plan for Taiwan ‘on fast development track’, NPC deputy says — New policies, including on the island, expected to be unveiled during ‘two sessions’.
- Sequoia Capital woos Chinese start-ups with US$1 million in seed funding, ChatGPT insight amid Washington’s potential investment restrictions — The venture capital firm’s accelerator programme in China will offer entrepreneurs insight on ChatGPT, the viral chatbot service developed by investee OpenAI.
- China-EU decoupling would knock 1 per cent off Germany’s GDP, report says, as diversification push intensifies — A decoupling of the European Union from China, in which trade is reduced by 97 per cent, would reduce German economic output by 1 per cent in the long term, according to the Kiel Institute.
- Volkswagen stands by SAIC’s Xinjiang assembly despite rights concerns, saying it ‘looks like all other joint venture plants’ in China — VW, which has fielded uncomfortable questions about its presence in Xinjiang, has said it believes it can be a force for good in the region.
Nikkei Asia
- Foreign investment in China slumps to 18-year low — Economic and political worries spur more exits and fewer new entries.
- Taiwan’s unofficial diplomacy gains as democracies sour on China — Foreign minister Wu’s recent visit to U.S. unimaginable just a few years ago.
Bloomberg
- Xi Faces More Skepticism Within China as Global Problems Mount — As Xi Jinping prepares to begin his second decade as China’s president, he’s facing a new phenomenon: A much more skeptical public.
- Apple Suppliers Are Racing to Exit China, AirPods Maker Says — Apple Inc.’s Chinese suppliers are likely to move capacity out of the country far faster than many observers anticipate to pre-empt fallout from escalating Beijing-Washington tensions, according to one of the US company’s most important partners.
- China Charges Ex-Merchants Bank President Over ‘Huge’ Bribes — Chinese authorities charged Tian Huiyu, the former president of China Merchants Bank Co., over suspected violations including taking bribes and insider trading, after an almost one-year long investigation of the ex-official at the nation’s top retail bank.
- China Lithium Miners Restart After Government Investigation — Some mines in one of China’s major lithium-production hubs have been allowed to restart amid a government investigation that halted activity last week, according to a report in local media outlet Cailian.
Reuters
- Reuters reporters’ online accounts faked to approach China activists — Two Reuters journalists had their identities faked by an unknown person or people who then used sham social media accounts to engage with Chinese activists on several online platforms over several months.
- U.S. approved 70% of export license applications from China in 2022 — Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan F. Estevez will tell the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the U.S. government denied or returned-without-action approximately 30.1% percent of such license applications.
- Volkswagen under fire over Xinjiang plant after China chief visit — Volkswagen says it has never found evidence of forced labour among its Xinjiang workforce and its presence is positive for the local population.
- First U.S. House China select committee hearing to focus on human rights — A new U.S. congressional select committee on competition with China will hold a first hearing focused largely on human rights on Tuesday night.
Other Publications
- The Globe and Mail: CSIS uncovered Chinese plan to donate to Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation — China appears to have targeted Justin Trudeau in a foreign influence operation after he became Liberal Leader in 2013, according to a national security source.
- The Globe and Mail: TikTok banned on all mobile devices owned by Canadian government, effective Tuesday — The government will also block the app from being downloaded on official devices in the future.
- Associated Press: China purging ‘Western erroneous views’ from legal education — China has ordered closer adherence to the dictates of the ruling Communist Party and leader Xi Jinping in legal education, demanding that schools “oppose and resist Western erroneous views” such as constitutional government, separation of powers, and judicial independence.
- The Washington Post: Taiwan needs more Top Guns as chance of conflict with China grows — Even as Taiwan awaits the delivery of 66 F-16 fighter jets by the end of 2026, it is facing a personnel shortage that could meaningfully undercut the island democracy’s ability to defend itself if China attacks.
- Politico: White House scales back plans to regulate U.S. investments in China — A planned executive order is expected to focus largely on transparency, and prohibit only new investments in Chinese semiconductor firms.
- Foreign Affairs: China’s Hidden Tech Revolution — How Beijing Threatens U.S. Dominance. By Dan Wang
- PIIE: Taiwan’s outbound foreign investment, particularly in tech, continues to go to mainland China despite strict controls — Despite efforts to diversify, the majority of Taiwanese foreign investments remain in mainland China.
- The Atlantic Council: United States–China semiconductor standoff: A supply chain under stress — This paper explores the potential implications of US semiconductor policy for the global semiconductor supply chains and the competition for primacy in an industry that is constantly changing the face of the global economy.
