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-China Summit Showcases Challenge to the West — Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin play up their solidarity and deepen economic and political ties.
- Chinese Pressure Tactics Against Other Countries Largely Ineffective, Study Finds — Trade restrictions sometimes produce the opposite of what Beijing wants, says Washington think tank.
- China Has a New Vision for Itself: Global Power — Buoyed by economic and military success, Beijing is growing bolder in challenging the U.S.-led global order.
- China Approves First Homegrown mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine — Though years behind Western rivals, Chinese drugmaker’s breakthrough fills crucial gap in nation’s health defenses.
- Tencent Posts Surprise Profit Growth Despite Economic Slowdown — Chinese social-media and videogame company has cut costs, reduced head count to improve profitability.
- Chip Makers Find Out How to Get 25% Investment Tax Credit — Treasury Department proposes definitions for key terms for tax break that is estimated to cost $24 billion.
- TikTok CEO, Veteran of Singapore Army, Harvard and Goldman Sachs, Tries to Reassure America — Shou Zi Chew straddled Western and Chinese business culture on his way to the top, and now says he wants to clarify misconceptions about the company.
- TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew Promises Firewall to Shield User Data — In prepared remarks to Congress, CEO will say that TikTok ‘will not be manipulated by any government’.
- U.S. State-Government Websites Use TikTok Trackers, Review Finds — Security firm’s report shows states might be inadvertently helping Chinese-owned app collect data.
- Huawei Bets on Another Premium 4G Phone — After its global phone sales collapsed without 5G chips and Google’s Android, Huawei is still selling high-end smartphones in China.
- As Ford Carves Out Its EV Unit, Reporting by Region Gets Ditched — The auto maker’s reorganization aims to provide greater insights into the fast-growing electric-vehicle division and its ambitious goals.
- Joe Biden’s Push to Counter China Steers EV Investments to Canada — Volkswagen Group, Brazilian miner Vale and others are investing billions of dollars in the country’s electric-vehicle and mining sectors.
The Financial Times
- TikTok: time running out for Chinese apps seeking US online growth — Ban would set worrying precedent for China tech groups forced to expand overseas by domestic saturation.
- Tencent returns to growth as China emerges from Covid lockdowns — Tech group forecasts uptick in online businesses as consumer spending rises.
- TikTok caught in US-China battle over its powerful algorithm — Chinese parent company ByteDance stuck between legal manoeuvres aimed at controlling video app’s future.
- Banking crisis complicates interest rate decisions — Xi Jinping backs Vladimir Putin on Ukraine war but holds out on Russian gas pipeline.
- Sri Lanka’s president calls on China and other creditors to compromise — Ranil Wickremesinghe urges lenders to set aside differences in crisis closely watched by emerging-market borrowers.
- Xi backs Putin on Ukraine but holds out on Russian gas pipeline — Leaders of China and Russia hold centrepiece talks in Moscow.
The New York Times
- In a Brother Act with Putin, Xi Reveals China’s Fear of Containment — Instead of focusing on a solution to the war in Ukraine, the Chinese leader’s visit to Moscow reinforced China and Russia’s shared opposition to American dominance.
- China Approves an mRNA Covid Vaccine, Its First — The homegrown shot is a crucial tool that China has been lacking — a vaccine based on a technology considered among the most effective the world has to offer.
- Xi and Putin Bind China and Russia’s Economies Further, Despite War in Ukraine — On the second day of the Chinese leader’s state visit in Moscow, Xi Jinping and Vladimir V. Putin declared an enduring economic partnership, in an effort to insulate their countries from punitive Western measures.
- Pulling the Plug on TikTok Will Be Harder Than It Looks — The tensions over the Chinese-owned social media app will come to a head on Thursday, when the company’s chief executive testifies on Capitol Hill.
Caixin
- Analysis: Why China’s 2023 Fiscal Policy May Be Less Expansionary Than It Seems — A higher budget deficit-to-GDP ratio belies underlying slowdown in spending growth, although analysts say the government may get more bang for its buck
South China Morning Post
- China, Russia gas-pipeline statements raise questions on Power of Siberia 2 progress — President Putin says agreement with China and Mongolia to build Power of Siberia 2 natural gas pipeline is ‘practically’ finalised, but analysts say Beijing may be looking to curb geopolitical risks as it shores up energy security.
- Alibaba’s AI expert and cloud computing head Jia Yangqing quits for new start-up amid ChatGPT frenzy — Jia Yangqing, a well-known AI researcher who previously worked for Facebook and Google, is said to be joining a new venture amid the growing frenzy around ChatGPT.
- US semiconductor firm Marvell lays off entire China research and development team in latest round of job cuts amid industry slowdown — US semiconductor company Marvell Technology said it is cutting about 320 jobs, or 4 per cent of its global workforce, in response to an industry slowdown.
Bloomberg
- Syngenta Closer to Shanghai IPO With Listing Hearing Next Week — Syngenta Group, the Swiss seed and agrichemical giant owned by ChemChina, is moving closer to its proposed $10 billion initial public offering in Shanghai, with its listing hearing expected soon.
- US Tightens China Rules for Chipmakers Getting Federal Funding From CHIPS Act — The Biden administration unveiled tight restrictions on new operations in China by chipmakers that get federal funds to build in the US, potentially hampering efforts to expand in the world’s largest semiconductor arena.
- China Regulator Questions Dalian Wanda on Unit’s HK IPO Plan — China’s securities regulator is scrutinizing a unit of conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group Co. about $4.4 billion in payments it might have to make if a mainland mall business doesn’t go public in Hong Kong this year.
Reuters
- Nvidia tweaks flagship H100 chip for export to China as H800 — Nvidia Corp, the U.S. semiconductor designer that dominates the market for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, said it has modified its flagship product into a version that is legal to export to China.
- Canada PM Trudeau’s top aide to testify in parliament on Chinese election meddling — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau bowed to pressure from the opposition and agreed to allow his top aide to testify before a parliamentary committee probing alleged Chinese election interference, his office said on Tuesday.
Other Publications
- CSIS: Deny, Deflect, Deter: Countering China’s Economic Coercion — This report analyzes eight cases of Chinese economic coercion since 2010—against Japan, Norway, the Philippines, Mongolia, South Korea, Australia, Canada, and Lithuania—and reveals that the most salient characteristic of China’s economic coercion is that it simply is not very effective.
